The Familiar of Twilight
by Hakuorofan7
Summary: (A tribute to A Heart in the Void by DrWriter21) Roxas had been forced to merge back with Sora by the machinations of DiZ. After clinging to what was left of his existence for the longest time, a miracle happens and Roxas finds another chance at existence. Now he will make the most of this new chance, while dealing with the tsundere mage that made it all happen. Roxas x harem.
1. Another Chance

**A theater flashes right before your eyes and the author appears right next to the projector.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and welcome to the first chapter of this story. I know the title says The Familiar of Twilight, but that is more of a working title if anything. If you guys habe any suggestions let me know. You have until the next chapter.***

***Anyway as I said before I was planning on making this story as a tribute of A Heart in the Void by DrWriter21, the very same story that got me onto this site. Sad to say that as it hasn't updated in nearly 3 years, so I've taken it upon myself to pick up the pieces and start anew.***

***While a few things will stay famiular to his work, this is my own story so it will be entierly different then what he has.***

***With that in mind this chapter takes place about a third of the way through Kingdom Hearts II and cover's Roxas encounter with the portal and nothing else. I'll explaim after the chapter why I did so.***

***So until then let us begin.***

***Also so I don't forget, I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Familiar of Zero.***

***So with that said just sit back, relax, maybe put some music on, and enjoy. I will see you all at the end of the chapter.***

**With that the author tapped the projecto and it flared to life, the chapter beginning as the screen turned to white.**

* * *

**Another Chance**

* * *

It has been exactly one month since that fateful day.

Since he had turned a year old and the day he lost everything.

The day he regained the memories stolen from him.

The day were he was forced to give up his existence to merge with Sora. Not a day has gone by with Roxas cursing both Riku and DiZ for leaving him with no choice as he floated in this void he now called home.

Since he returned to Sora that is all he has been doing, cursing the two and Sora.

Now it wasn't entirely true that the boy was responsible for everyone screwing him over...okay maybe he was, but he was never directly involved with everything.

The Nobody knew that as he inherited all of Sora's memories so he knew the wasn't at fault.

And when he meant all of them, even the ones in Castle Oblivion.

The only thing Sora was truly guilty of was bringing him and Naminé into existence.

That and killing Marluxia and Larxene, two of the people he was the closest to in the Organization and while he disagreed with their methods he would have gladly joined them in overtrowing Xemnas. Along with Axel and someone else he couldn't remember...

That lead to his main issue, the people who manipulated him for his connection to Sora. Xemnas and DiZ, the people he wished to kill the most.

Xemnas may have given his name, a home, and a purpose, but the man was guilty of many things. Including robbing his memories of something or something important. They started coming back slowly over the month, and that opened up a whole new set of issues.

But it revealed the truth, Xemnas truly cared for no one in the Organization but himself and possibly Xigbar and Saïx. He sent everyone he suspected as a taitor to the Organization to Castle Oblivion to die by Sora's hand, had him create Kingdom Hearts for him, tried to manipulate him to somehow usurp Sora's existence if his memories were of any indication, stole his memories, and sicced an entire horde of Heartless, Nobodies, and Axel after him once he left the Organization. Possibly even making him kill his best friend, but since he pulled the same trick on Sora so he didn't know.

He honestly wished that Axel was alright right now as he seemed to have left the Organization if Sora's memories were of any indication.

Anyway besides that, he had even more reason to despise DiZ then Xemnas.

He sent Riku after him, mistreated Naminé and dispised the two of them for simply being Nobodies, and tortured him by not only erasing his memories and giving him a false life, but he also left him no choice to merge with Sora.

Honestly he was perfectly willing to kill the two for what they done with him, if he could ever leave Sora that is.

He had merged almost completly with Sora, except for his own memories. Roxas wasn't willing to lose the one thing that seperated himself from his Somebody.

The Nobody was jsut content to float in this void until either he faded away or if the time calls for it take over Sora. DiZ probably never expected that.

Due to their former existence of being compreatly seperate from each other as a pseudo Heartless and Nobody, their bond was unstable at best. Honestly Roxas figured that was the reason that he hadn't faded away yet. Still through he found out that of he wished to do so, he could drag Sora back into whatever this void was and possibly over power him.

But Roxas didn't want to for two reasons.

First he wanted his own body back, not Sora's body.

Second, it didn't sit well with him to posses Sora and erase him from existence just to take back his own. Sora had so many people that actually cared for him, while he only had Naminé and Axel and the both of them probably thought that he was gone. It would devastate everyone close to him if he were just to take over Sora.

So he would leave Sora be for now and just watch as he progresses through the worlds. Only possessing him if he has no choice but to save Sora's body as a last ditch atempt to save them both. Or if something comes up that forces him to take control of Sora.

Roxas decided that until such a moment arises, he would just stay here lemanting his nonexistence.

"Why can't I just fade in peace?" The Nobody questioned to himself, trying to hold his sanity together.

All he had left now was just to laze around and observe what Sora has experienced and to shift through his knowledge about the things he had accumilated through his Somebody's memories and the false ones created by Ansem.

They helped broden his knowledge of fighting and emotions, but they were practically useless without a body to use it or a heart to feel emotions.

So he was now stuck here with nothing to do but watch Sora.

The Nobody just sighed as he tried to make himself comfortable as he tried to take a nap. Not like he had anything else to do.

"I can understand why it had to be you Sora. Why you must exist at the cost of my own." Roxas sighed out as he felt sleep starting to take over. Maybe this time he will finally fade away in peace. It was better to do that then exist for eternity like this.

"Still it isn't fair at all. Sora you are beloved by the light feared by the darkness. I am however rejected by both. You were meant to exist, I was never supposed to in the first place. You get to have everything while I have nothing. It truly isn't fair." Roxas said somberly as sleep started to overtake him. "All I ever wanted was just a chance to exist like you do."

Soon darkness overtook him as he fell into a dreamless sleep, waiting for the end to come.

* * *

If this was anyother time, his silent prayer would have gone unanswered and he would remain trapped within Sora for the forseeable future.

However this time, his prayer was answered as he started to glow a soft silver in his sleep.

Unaware at that moment, his destiny was changing for the better.

* * *

"Okay this is new." Xigbar said as he and Xemnas observed the incomplete Kingdom Hearts that was illuminating their world.

It was the same as always, except it now had a azure glow around the edges of it.

"Indeed, I have never heard of such an occurnce." Xemnas said while gazing up at it as the glow faded. "It looks like it is over now though. Still, I wonder what the glow was? Kingdom Hearts is still incomplete so it couldn't have been that."

"Well whatever it is I'll see to it myself." Xigbar said, getting the Superior to nod.

"Very well, report back to me whatever you find Xigbar." Xemnas said as he teleported away.

"Sure whatever you say boss." Xigbar said as he observed the artificial Kingdom Hearts.

He knew exactly what it was.

Kingdom Hearts had just granted someone's request. Honestly it was borderline impossible unless you had the _X_-blade. Yet as Xehanort hadn't forged it thos should have been impossible.

But what made this interesting was this was an artificial Kingdom Hearts. An imcomplete one at that crafted by the hearts gathered by two, now three different Keyblade wielders and some of Vexen's brilliance to stabilze it.

Still something like this was impossible unless someome was extreamly connected to it's creation, otherwise such a request was treated as nothing more then a useless prayer.

There was only two people who meet that description and both of them were pretty much wiped clean from existence.

Unless...

"I always knew you were stubborn kiddo, but this takes the cake!" Xigbar laughed out.

It was the only explination.

Xion was wiped from existence completly and no one else remebered her, leaving only one suspect.

Roxas.

When he had merged back with Sora, he must've been stubborn enough to cling onto what was left of his existence in order to not be fully asorbed back into his Somebody. He must've wished for the one thing anyone in his situation must've wished for and what all Nobodies desired the most.

To exist as their own person.

Something only Xemnas, Roxas, and Naminé could only achieve.

By some miracle it seemed like his wish was going to become a reality now.

Well now that he was out in the open again it was time to bring him back in.

And he needed help.

Training his arrowgun right next to him, he shot into the floor and with a flicker of light the younger incarnation of Xehanort appeared.

"What is it." He asked.

"Roxas is seperate from Sora once again." Xigbar said, shocking the time traveler.

"Impossible, he shouldn't even exist right now." Xehanort said.

"Well he is. The kiddo is stubborn enough to have clung onto a minor existence until a miracle happened and it did." Xigbar said while pointing at Kingdom Hearts, getting Xehanort to nod in understanding.

"Then you have summoned me to help look for him then." Xehanort said.

"Yup, and I suggest we start now. There is no telling where he is." Xigbar said, getting the time traveller to nod. The two summomed two seperate Corridors of Darkness walked through them, beginning their search.

* * *

An outstretched hand was about to touch a green portal, but it flickered out of existence right before he could touch it.

"Well there goes my dreams then." Saito Hiraga sighed out disappointedly.

Saito was painstakingly average and he disliked it, so when he saw a portal straight out of an isekai anime on his way home, he took his chances and reached out for it. He was going to go to another world and if he was lucky enough get himself a harem of beatiful women.

But as luck would have it, the portal closed and his dreams were crushed before his eyes.

Saito then began to think that maybe he had dodged a bullet there.

He would have been stranded on an unkown world with nothing but the clothes on his back with no way back and facing possible unkown dangers at said world.

Dying alone on a different world far away from his parents who would worry themselves to death if he disappeared wasn't worth the potential to have a harem of his own.

"Whoever steps through wherever that portal reopens at better be worth my crushed dreams." Saito said as he resigned himself to his average life. "If they are, then I wish them nothing but luck. They are probably going to need it."

With that he began to walk home, lamenting what could have been.

* * *

**My slave somewhere out in the universe.**

Roxas woke up with a start as someone's voice echoed throught the void. He looked around for the source of the voice only to find nothing.

"I swear to Kingdom Hearts, if I find out that someone else is in here I'm leaving Sora immediatly." Roxas said as he summoned his Keyblades. He wasn't pleased with the idea of being trapped within his Somebody with someone else.

**My beautiful, powerful, and divine familiar.**

Roxas tried sense where the voice was coming from, but to no avail as it seemed to originate from outside of Sora.

The Nobody decided to temporaily possess Sora to see where the voice came from.

A moment later he saw that he was in the cockpit of the Gummi ship, meaning the voice must've been broadcasting to him magically. Roxas left control to Sora shortly after, leaving his Somebody confused on what just happened and a major headache.

Back in the void, Roxas was also confused.

Why was someone trying to communicate to him magically?

He hardly knew anyone truly and most of them are dead or think he his dead.

So who was contacting him and why?

**Heed my guidance!**

With that spoken space began to fold in one itself before a green portal opened up infront of him.

Roxas pointed his Keyblades at the portal, waiting to see what came through. After what seemed like a few minutes of waiting, he dispelled his Keyblades and focused his senses on the portal, gauging what was on the other side.

What he could tell was that there was a wide verity of people on the other side along with a verity of different creatures. Each of them with a strong heart and each of them balanced.

On the other side was a whole new world, one possibly that Sora or the Organization never knew about.

Roxas then relised what this portal really was.

An escape from his fate.

If he had a heart it would be trying to leap out of his chest, because of how happy it was. So instead Roxas just let the first genuine smile to grace his face.

This is what he was looking for, a way to escape from Sora. And if his guess was right then he could safetly pass through the portal and Sora would be alright. He did survive his first journey and defeated the likes of Ansem and Marluxia without him even to merge with him. So he was pretty confident that Sora would be okay without him.

So Roxas took a quick invitory of what items he possessed and counted up the munny he had on hand just incase there was no Moogle on that world.

Once he he was satisfied with what he had, the Nobody turned to face away from the portal.

"Sora I don't know if you can hear this, but all I have to say to you is good luck and if it is possible give Xemnas and DiZ as much trouble as you can for whatever they are planning. They deserve every little bit." Roxas said, dobting that his Somebody even heard him. But he needed to get that off his chest before leaving.

* * *

Meanwhile a now very confused Sora was wondering why he wanted to punch someone named Xemnas and DiZ in the face and why he felt like they deserved it.

* * *

With that in mind Roxas faced the portal and threw his hood up before reaching out towards it.

"Here goes nothing." He said as his fingers brushed against it.

The portal immediatly began to suck him in. Seeing as how it was going a bit to slow for his tastes, Roxas rushed through it. Ready for the chance to exist once again as himself. A moment later he entered through the portal completly and it closed behind the Nobody, leaving nothing behind as his new life begun.

* * *

**The projector died down as the chapter ended and you find the author munching on some popcorn.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Anyway now that it is done, let us get down to business shall we.***

***As I mentioned this earlier I was only covering the very beginning and nothing in Halkeginia. Truth is that my knowledge of the series is very rusty and I'm going to be working until I release the next chapter organizing the canon of the anime and novels until I can make a very clear cut of the story to work on. Something that will take at least until the summer.***

***It will take as long as not only do I have to watch the anime and read the novels, but of a few different reasons. The most prominent being that I have to help with something for my family. The least prominent being I'm swamped with anime to watch right now. It is going to take a bit to clear up the latter and even longer for the former, but once I have done so I will continue this story.***

***Well with that said it is time to move on.***

***First is the harem, suggestions are open and the first slot goes to the tsundere mage, Louise. I loved how DrWriter21 wrote the chemistry between the two. Honestly it is going to be difficult for me to recapture that and I've only had brief experience writing a tsundere, but I'll give it my all. So with that done, feel free to send me suggestions.***

***Second is the next chapter, that will be longer and cover Roxas's first time on Halkeginia. So I hope you all will enjoy that.***

***So with that out of the way if you have any questions send me a review or a PM and I'll get back to you while I can. Until then, I'll see you all later!***

**The author waves goodbye before snapping his fingers, causing the screen to fade to black.**

* * *

**Harem(WIP): Louise**


	2. Rebirth

**Static appears on the screen before a theater appears before your eyes, with the author appearing right next to the projector.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and welcome back to another chapter of Familiair of Twilight.***

***I know that I promised that I would update From No One to Someone...well the progress on that is slow going. Also I dId promise that I would publish the next chapter after a bit of reading of the LN and watching the anime.***

***Well as of today I have read the first 5 novels and watched the first season...and I have to say that prefer the light novels more.***

***Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the anime. But I read the novels first, so that caused me to be a bit disenchanted with how some of them are portrayed there especially Louise.***

***Well I'll keep what few grievances I have to a minimum. You don't want me to grip about what I thought was wrong anyway. That is why some of write fanfiction is for anyway.***

***Though one thing I will admit to is that Saito screwed himself over literally a dozen times in both mediums to forming a relationship with anyone if it wasn't for a mixture of bad luck, not keeping his perversion in check, not keeping himself in check, Louise's insecurities and tsundereness (is that even a word), and that accursed seal screwing up his mind a bit.***

**The author summons himself a glass of water and drinks it before continuing.**

***Sorry, just needed to get that off my chest.***

***Anyway onto the main topic at hand, the canon of this story. For the fist bit of it will follow the first season of the anime but characters and events will stick a bit closer to the light novel. I will release the arcs that I have planned that will cover the source material that I have covered, but that will wait until the end of the chapter.***

***Now before we move on to the chapter there is one thing that I would like to address...thank you all for the support for this story.***

***You all have blown my expectations out of the water on the first chapter alone with 45 favorites and 51 follows! That is more then I've gotten on any other story on the first chapter and it nearly beats out on what I have for Twilit Mages so far. I guess that alot of you all have been waiting for someone to do this, well I hope I better not disappoint you all this. Well wish me luck then.***

***Anywayit is time for us to move onto the story.***

***But first, I do not own anything related to Kingdom Hearts or Familiar of Zero.***

***Okay with that out of the way it is time to begin. So sit back, relax, maybe put some music on, and enjoy. I will see you all at the end of the chapter.***

**The author flips on the projector and the story begins.**

* * *

**Rebirth**

* * *

"Have we gone through everyone?" Professor Colbert asked as he looked his students.

As far as he could see that this was an excellent day for the Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual this year. The weather was just perfect and all the students had summoned such respectable familiars as well.

So why did he feel like something was missing?

"Louise hasn't gone yet." Kirche said as she stroked her Salamander's head. "So are you going to grace us with your beautiful, divine, and powerful familiar Zero?"

"Naturally." Louise growled out while sending a glare promising pain to her voluptuous rival.

Colbert could only sigh out at the two.

Honestly he should have expected his most problematic student to be the last to summon her familiar.

Academically she was a good student, but the main problem was her ability to create explosions. It was an interesting ability, but it was more problematic then it was worth. The only kind of magic she could use was explosions and that it left all sorts of destruction in their wake in her past year.

Which had unfortunately gotten a lot of practice in protecting others from her explosions.

Thankfully the Headmaster had learned from last years and there had ben a lot less explosions this year with how the staff was more prepared for Louise.

But the damage had already been done and with her inability to properly cast magic Louise had the unfortunate honor of the student body nicknaming her Zero and the question of her status as a mage.

Something that he refuses to allow to happen in his presence.

"Miss Zerbst, please refrain from making fun of your classmates." Colbert said while fixing Kirche a stern glare. She proceeded to turn away and look a bit sheepish.

She was as passionate as her nickname implied and didn't really mean any harm. But he had to make sure that she never crossed the line when it came to her and Louise.

"Now then, Miss Vallière would you kindly summon your familiar now?" Colbert asked Louise with a gentler tone.

Louise nodded and walked forward. Her wand clenched in her fist and her hands shaking from anxiety as the students began chattering around her.

"It's the Zero, Louise man."

"What is she going to summon?"

"I'm sure she can't. It'll be another explosion and that would be it."

Louise was starting to get angry as the chatter grew louder.

Until a small burst of flame erupted from Colbert's staff, getting all their attention.

"I believe that is quite enough. The next student who speaks out of turn about Miss Vallière will spend time with me after dinner polishing the desks in my classroom until they are spotless." Colbert said fixing his students a stern glare, silencing them. Then he faced Louise. "Miss Vallière if you would please continue?"

Louise just sent the professor a grateful nod before.

"Please let this work." She whispered before puffing out her chest and raised her wand.

**"My slave somewhere out in the universe." **Louise chanted, getting quite a number of students including Kirch to scoff and Colbert to sigh.

Louise like quite a few of his students thought that familiars were slaves, when instead they were partner for mages.

She would have to learn the difference if she could even summon her familiar.

**"My beautiful, powerful, and divine familiar. Heed my guidence!" **Louise shouted as she finished chanting.

Colbert took a step back as an explosion erupted from Louise's wand, kicking up a a massive dust cloud.

As Louise coughed up in the smoke cloud, she heard something clunk onto the ground.

As the smoke cleared up she saw a boy who looked a little younger then her with blond hair and blue eyes and clade in black grabs. He was currently looking at a strange black sword embedded into the ground in confusion.

This boy was supposed to be her beautiful, powerful, and divine familiar? Honestly didn't know what to think.

So as the boy picked up and examined the black key-like sword, she onl had one thing to say.

"Who are you?"

* * *

The first thing that came to Roxas was the smell of smoke and dust and a cloud of dust blocking his vision.

Still it was good sign that he was alive and well for the first time in forever he was free of it all.

The Organization, DiZ, and especially Sora.

He was free from them all.

Now all he needed to figure out what to do next.

His thoughts were interupted when something embedded otself into the ground. Looking down he saw that it was Oblivion.

How in the name of Kingdom Hearts did that get out here with him. The Nobody was pretty sure that he never summoned either of his Keyblades when he walked through that portal.

Roxas tried to dispel it, but it didn't respond. Retching the Keyblade from the ground he tried to dispel it again, only for nothing to happen once again. Only it seemed to hum about at in his touch.

That was strange.

Before he could try to summon Oathkeeper to test if it had similar properties, someone called out to him.

"Who are you?" A petite girl with pink hair and pink eyes asked. Judging by her clothing she was possible a student at some sort of school.

Then again he really had nothing else to go by except the false memories of going to school in Twilight Town.

Something that he would be dedicating the rest of his none existence to forgetting. That and possibly maybe look for Naminé to erase them, after seeing if she was still existing that is.

He was willing to keep the false memories she created in Castle Oblivion, but the memories that DiZ made were something that Roxas wished to be rid of. Along with the man himself if had Naminé killed.

Anyway Roxas tried to get a reading of the girl's heart and was promptly shocked at what he sensed.

Her heart was unlike anything he had ever sensed. It had more light then anyone he had ever sensed yet it also felt like one of a Nobody's. Nothing but an empty void, with only a minute trace of darkness. But what was the most shocking was that the same feeling lf her heart was the exact same of the portal.

This girl was the one who had separated himself from Sora somehow.

One who seemed to be getting impatient and irritated without him answering.

This girl did save him after all, so he supposed the least he could do was answer back.

"My name is Roxas and who are you?" The Nobody asked, getting her to sigh in irritation.

Was it something he said?

"Great he can't understand anything I say?" The pink haired girl said, getting the Nobody to frown.

Odd, he or Sora never encountered a problem with a language barrier before minus Tarzan that is. He could understand the girl, but not the other way around.

"Wait he can, it's just that I can't understand him. Now I can't ask what kind of commoner he is." The girl said with an irritable sigh.

What did she mean by commoner?

"It makes everything you said worth it." A tall woman with tanned skin, red hair and red eyes said with a slight mocking tone. "I never expected you to actually summon a familiar Louise, but summoning a commoner seems just like you. At least he is a handsome one, so you can at least say that you did keep part of your word."

The collective group of students began to laugh at Louise, causing her to grit her teeth.

"Shut up Kirche. I just made a little screw up, that is all!" Louise snapped at Kirche, whose laughter seemed to be dying down.

Roxas meanwhile just studied his surroundings, his grip tightening around Oblivion just in case.

Judging by the uniforms he was in a school of some kind. Which he quickly figured out that it was magic once he spotted a few wands and staffs amongst the students and noted that there was creatures of various shapes and sizes all around.

From mundane like a cat to a frog to magically like a large lizard with a flame at the tip of it's tail next to Kirche and even a large blue dragon right next to a girl with light blue hair and glasses reading in a book.

Whatever reason these creatures were here especially the dragon, he was glad they weren't attacking anyone.

From what he can sense there the dragon was one of the strongest nearby.

He was also worried about facing the three strongest he could sense nearby, the teacher if he had to guess, Kirche, and the girl with the book.

All three of them had strong hearts and were stronger then most he had sensed during his days of Heartless hunting. He was confident he might be able to defeat Kirche on his own, the teacher and girl with the book not so much.

"As expected of Zero she has matched our expectations once again." A chubby blonde boy with an owl laughed along with everyone else, infuriating Louise even more and confusing Roxas before the teacher fixed everyone a stern glare. Once everyone was quiet he fixed his attetion on the chubby student.

"Mr. Grandple I'll see you after supper for detention." The teacher said sternly, getting the student in question to nod nervously.

He then turned to Louise.

"Miss Vallière it is time for you to finish the Familiar binding ritual." The teacher said, causing Louise's anger to spike.

"Are you serious Mr. Colbert, I summoned a commoner! I wish for a do over!" Louise demanded, getting Colbert to sigh.

"It is strictly forbidden. You only get to summon the familiar that corrisponds with your element once in your lifetime. Summoning again would sully the tradition. The rite of the Springtime Familiar Summon takes precedence above everything else." Colbert said, causing Louise to sigh in annoyance and Roxas to look confused.

He might understand everything they were saying, but he had absolutly no clue on what they were talking about.

"But is a commoner, I've never heard of anyone summoning a commoner before!" Louise shouted, getting a few of the students to laugh before Colbert's glare silenced them.

"I'm afraid that besides that you need to finish the ritual. I'm sorry to say this Miss Vallière, but if you not bind him to yourself then I will have no choice but to expel you." Colbert said regretfully, causing Louise's heart to darken a bit and Roxas preparing to open a Corridor of Darkness.

He may not know everything they were talking about, but he did hear the part where they were going to bind him to the girl.

And this was after he had just gotten away from Sora!

There was no way he was going to allow that to happen!

However before he knew it Louise point her wand at him, an overwhelming feeling of despair hidden in her eyes.

The Nobody was curious about this change and that was when Louise made her move.

**My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the Five Elemental Powers; bless this humble being and make him my familiar." **Louise chanted and the Nobody found that the girl was closing into his personal space, her face colored a crimson red.

"You should consider yourself lucky, normally you would go your entire life without a noble doing this to you." A red faced Louise said.

Before Roxas could even react, the girl grabbed him and pulled him into a kiss, getting a whistle or two from the crowd.

The Nobody never expected this...or anything at all for that matter. If he had a heart he was sure that it would be beating out of control right. But as he was lacking one, he was more confused then anything and wondering why in Kingdom Heart's name that this girl was kissing him.

That and why Oblivion was starting to vibrate like crazy in his hand.

A minute later, a red faced Louise separated herself from Roxas.

"It is done." Louise said looking away from Roxas.

"I got to say I never expected that you had it in you Louise." Kirche said with a teasing smile, causing the pinkete to get irritated.

"Shut it Zerbst." Louise grumbled out.

At this time Roxas finally came to his senses he felt like he was on fire and steam began to admit through his clothes.

Whatever was happening to him had something to do with this pink haired girl. He didn't know if whatever she was doing worth the price of his continued existence or not. The pain on his hand would indicate the later.

Removing the glove covering his hand he saw that runes were being carved in his hand.

Roxas only threw a glare at the girl before her shifted Oblivion into his uncovered hand. Before he could even move however he felt himself being connected between two points.

One point to Louise.

And the next point was all too familiar to him.

It was Sora.

He was being pulled back.

"No." Roxas said as he started to flicker in and out of existence, much to the surprise of the students.

The flickering began to intensify as he felt himself being torn apart and his very molecules ripping apart. As his body began to quaken apart, he slammed Oblivion into the dirt to support himself as he mulled over his choices.

If he chose Sora, he would wind right back into non existence.

If he chose Louise, he wasn't sure what the options with that choice.

If he didn't chose...well he was pretty sure that he would be split in half.

So it was either nonexistence, uncertainty, or possible death.

He knew what he was going to chose.

With a reluctance sigh, he accepted Louise's pull.

The pain stopped and the flickering began to subside. Roxas nreathed a sigh of relief as the steam dissapaited and the runes where done being carved in his flesh.

He could finally exist now, but at what cost? He didn't know, but he intended to find out. So he turned to face the shocked mages and tried to speak too them.

Only for the runes and Oblivion to explode into light and for his vision to turn black.

* * *

Colbert could only sigh as he climbed through the student's quarters as he levitated the unconscious form of Louise's familiar and his strange sword with said student trailing behind him.

The aftermath of Louise's summon caused quit the commotion. No one expected her familiar to be a commoner or attempted at being summoned by something else halfway through the ritual.

It had caused quite a stir throughout his class and quite a few students made it quite clear that Louise or the zero was unfit to be a mage if she nearly killed her familiar just by binding him to her.

He made it quite clear to them that they would be seeing him after dinner for the next week cleaning the desks in his room. They had crossed a line that even Mr. Grandple was willing to admit was too far.

Looks like he was making some progress with that boy after all.

Anyway, Louise stuck close to her familiar. Probably wondering what his origins were as the ritual clearly proved that he wasn't your regular commoner and what in the Founder's name had caused such a reaction during the ritual. Questions that would have to wait until the boy woke up.

Along with questions about topics the boy might not be aware of. The runes on his hand and his uniquely shaped sword...he swore he saw them somewhere. He would have to check oldest parts of the castle library after dealing with the boy and Louise.

He needed to have a few words with his problematic student about her familiar. Though brief, he saw something in the boy that he hasn't seen since that fateful day years ago. A expression he dearly wished never to see again.

Colbert was broken out of his musings by seeing that he had arrived at Louise's room. A single tap of his staff opened the door and he deposited the boy and his sword onto a pile of hay.

An excellent bedding for most familiars, just not a human.

Another thing to discuss with Louise.

With a quick tap of his staff he closed the door and faced the pinkete in question.

"Do you know why I'm here for Miss Vallière, besides the mystery of your familiar of course?" Colbert asked Louise, getting her to nod.

"Is it because I was nearly expelled again once again?" She asked getting him to nod.

They have had this conservation several times in the past. Due to her ability to only make explosions and several times of using said explosions on her fellow students during first year she had nearly been expelled. It was only thanks to split decision and urging from one of her sisters, Cattleya to her family that she has stayed in the academy.

Until now that is.

"It was and I'm afraid that it was a majority vote this time though this time on you actually staying in the academy. The ritual was your last chance and if you failed you would have been expelled and your status as a mage revoked." Colbert said, getting the pinkete to shudder.

Not that he could blame her.

She couldn't even cast a spell properly and that wasn't to say that she hasn't been trying. Louise was one of the better students academically, but that was just it. She had nothing else not including any friends, because of her inability to use magic properly.

By the Founder, he has lost count of how many detentions he and a few of his fellow like minded teachers have given that has one form or another involved Louise.

Anyway the ritual was her last chance to prove herself a mage. Each and every know mage has been able to summon a familiar. If Louise had been unable to summon one, she wouldn't lose her noble status but she would forever be known as nothing more then a magicless noble.

A rare case, but it has happened before. She would have been nothing more then a bargaining chip for a potential alliance between families, a role she had already fulfilled.

Being labeled such a thing would have been a nightmare for her and her reaction clearly showed her feelings.

Which quickly faded and was replaced with her usual gusto.

"So you are telling me that my familiar is the only reason why I'm still here!" Shouted while gesturing to the unconsious form of the boy.

"That is correct, so I expect that you that treat him with some form of decency." Colbert said, getting a shocked look from her.

"Why are you asking me that! He is just a commoner and my familiar!" Louise demanded, only to be silenced with a stern glare from her professor.

"Because Miss Vallière while he might be your familiar, he is also a human. So I expect you to at least be civil with him as you would any of the servants here at the academy. I trust you to at least do that, after all you will be stuck with him for the rest of your life." Colbert said, causing Louise to huff.

"Fine." She said after a moment of silence. "Only because I have to."

"Very well then." Colbert said, figuring that was the best that was going to get from the his problem student for now.

He hoped that whatever experience she would have with her familiar would humble her a bit.

"I will also be talking to the rest of your teachers to provide a seat for him during classes and to talk with the Headmaster to provide a few supplies to him including a uniform. The rest I trust to you." Colbert said, getting Louise to nod begrudgingly.

With that said he walked towards the door before quickly throwing Louise a stern glance.

"And Miss Vallière, if I manage catch word of you mistreating your familiar...well I believe you know what the punishment id for when that happens." Colbert warned, getting Louise to gulp. Taking that as a yes he exited the room and proceeded to the library.

* * *

Louise could only sigh before glaring at the unconscious form of her familiar.

She just wanted something like a dragon or a griffin. Something to rub into the faces of those that had mocked her.

Instead she got a commoner swordsman!

Although his sword was unique looking, she had no idea how it would even work.

Louise tried to grab it, but yelped when it felt hot to the touch.

After checking her hand she glared at the sword, only for it to vibrate angrily at her.

Okay she was wrong, he was at least a swordsman who get himself and magic sword. A step up from a commoner, but only a slight step.

Still as much as she hated to admit it...she was her last chance to prove everyone wrong. He was the result of the her first didn't end in a failure. After many years of failure he was her first success.

And the only thing keeping her from becoming nothing more then being labeled a commoner in all but name.

Still she thought about what Professor Colbert had said.

He was one of the few who she didn't really have any issues with and always curbed most of the people who mocked her.

Especially that cow Zerbst!

So she would at least be willing to head his advice somewhat.

Still if her familiar wanted anything like a bed he would have to earn it amd only id she approved.

Louise could only sigh as she wondered what to do next.

* * *

The next time Roxas awoke it was in a location he had only seen onve and in Sora's memories.

The Dive to the Heart.

Only this time it was much different then the last time he was here, as the one was incomplete.

The glass was mainly grey and the outside was completly done. On the inside was a picture of him on the right side. He was on the clocktower over looking a red sunset at the bottom and at the top was a night sky with a large blue moon and a smaller red moon. In his hands was Oblivion and a Keyblade he couldn't identify or describe as it was just a white blur.

Next to him was two figures he couldn't identify as they were also a white blur, although one did have a Black Coat.

Other then that there was nothing else to identify them.

He spent a minute studying the mosaic before he felt something a presence around him. Before it split into two and merged back into one. It continued this process for a few moments, before Roxas summoned Oathkeeper.

"Whoever who are reveal yourselves." Roxas said with his Keyblade raised.

If Nobodies were actually capable of feeling emotions, he would be in a bad mood. Then again he what he did know about expressing emotions was from false memories from DiZ.

Another reason to kill him if possible, helping to develope his ability to emote while not being able to truly feel any of it.

Anyway he was summoned back into existence only to be bound, branded, and forced upon by a girl a little older then he was physically.

So basically he was pissed and he wanted answers.

The presence stilled for a second before it continued it's process.

**As much as we wish we could, we can not. We are incomplete and figuring ourselves out at the moment.**

"What do you mean by that and what do you mean by we?" Roxas asked confused, his Keyblade still raised.

**We were once two different people. One of us connected to you, but long forgotten by everyone. The other one only recently, yet knows of you. Due to your circumstances and the nature of the ritual, everything about us has been thrown into disarray. We both are working to separate ourselves but it is going to take quite sometime in order to do so.**

Roxas could only sigh at that as he dispelled his Keyblade.

So he had two people existing inside him and neither one knew which was which. That alone was troubling and if one of them was connected to his missing memories then that would make things even more difficult.

But he could tell that they were not hostile to him. So will at least give them a chance.

"I see, is there anyway I can help?" Roxas asked.

**Sadly you can not. We must figure this out ourselves, but thank you for your concern. If you wish to help then you must continue to exist, despite how much we wish not to.**

"And why is that?" Roxas asked with a frown.

**Both of us didn't have any choice in matter. But one of us sacrificed their own existence to save someone else's existence while the other's time had long since passed and excepted their end. But something they never expected kept a piece of them to exist all of this time. Yet we are content with our current situation and will continue to work on it as long as you continue to exist. That is all that we care about your continued existence.**

Roxas could only sigh at that.

"Some existence that is, I am bound to a girl and have been branded." Roxas said, feeling a brief sense of anger from one of the presences before it was quelled by the other.

**At your current predicament we can see your point. But we made sure that your only connection to her is brief and that she has no power over you. The runes you speak of are the source of your connection and the only thing keeping you in existence. You might be able to exist on your own over time, but at the present time it is all but impossible.**

The Nobody could only sigh at that as he looked at the runes on his hand.

They were the only thing keeping him alive at this point and if what the prescense were implying that it would have made him nothing more then a slave under her command.

**We advice that you do not be upset at the girl although one of us agree with you. The runes have existed far beyond her own time and the details have been lost to time. So please don't blame her for the follies of her predecessors.**

"Fine I won't." Roxas said, seeing the logic in what the presences were saying.

**That is for the best.**

Roxas tried to say something, but he felt like something was pulling on him.

**It is time for us to depart. If you wish to contact us again focus on Oblivion although we can't promise that we will always be able to contact us, but we will talk again. Good luck Roxas.**

The Nobody could only nod as he vanished from the dive to the heart.

* * *

Roxas woke up with a start and found himself in a small bedroom on a pile of hay.

He just sighed and picked up his Keyblade before looking outside of the window to see the same two moons that he saw in the Dive to the Heart.

It was a beautiful sight.

Roxas looked around for a spot to get a better view and saw a large tower.

He was about open a Corridor of Darkness to it when the door opened and he sensed the girl, Louise if he remembered correctly.

"So you are finally wake then." Louise said, getting Roxas to nod. "Then what is your name?" She demanded.

"It's Roxas and I take it that you are Louise." The Nobody said, shocking her.

"How did you know that!" She demanded.

"I heard a few of your classmates and your teacher talking and I figured that your name was Louise." Roxas said.

"And did you hear anything else?" She asked.

"Nothing really, why?" The Nobody inquired, causing her face to flush.

"No reason!" Louise snapped before she regained her composure. "But you should know my name as you are my familiar."

"And what is that exactly?" Roxas asked, infuriating her.

"A familiar is a creature that is summoned to protect and serve their masters. How do you not know that, literally almost everyone in Halkeginia about familiars, even the commoners! You would have to be loving under a rock or something!" Louise shouted, causing Roxas to frown.

So it seemed like he was bound to this girl and if the presences were right then if they hadn't tampered with the runes then he would have been enslaved to this girl.

The thought of that upset him and caused the nearby lantern to flicker, much to his and Louise's surprise.

Taking a breath, Roxas steaded himself and the light returned to normal.

Looks like he need to work on some control over his light if he could affect the area around him just by losing his cool.

"Simple it is because I'm not from anywhere in Halkeginia, at least were you would know." Roxas said, shocking here before Louise composed herself.

"Well that would explain a lot about you, but I could care less where you are from. All that I care about is how good are you with your sword?" Louise inquired before jumping back and landing on her rear when Roxas brandished Oblivion and pointed it at her.

He lowered it and in one smooth motion he changed hands with it and took a few practice swings. He lowered it to the ground and offered her a hand.

"Believe me I am very skilled with it." Roxas said honestly, surprised when the girl swatted his hand away.

"I can see that, but you didn't have to nearly kill me!" Louise shouted before brushing herself off and heading towards her dresser. And started to throw her clothes off in front of him much to his confusion.

The Nobody was pretty sure that someone who seemed as prideful as her would willfully strip in front of him?

Louise changed into her nightgown and threw her clothes at him.

"It has been a long day and I'm going to bed early. I expect that my uniform to be washed by tomorrow familiar or else!" She demanded.

Roxas just stood there and thought about her words before responding.

"Fine I will, but only as a favor not as an order." Roxas said, getting Louise to grit her teeth.

"What did you say?!" Louise demanded.

"I said I will do it and a few things as a favor, not because I'm your servant. Now I understand what your teacher was saying earlier. We should be partners, not servant and master. I can tell we have a long way to go before that point. I will be willing to work with you if you could understand that. If that is all I will see you in the mourning." Roxas said, before putting her clothes in his bag and began to walk to the door.

He owed the girl a debt for bring him back into existence so he would be sticking around here for a while. That and this world, Halkeginia seemed to be out of the Organization's radar.

So he would stick around, but if Louise tried to order him around like a slave he would leave.

Roxas was tired of his fate being dictated by others, it was time he started to make his own decisions.

He will not let anyone else control him again.

Not the Organization, not DiZ, not Riku, not Sora, and especially not Louise.

He would decide what to do from now on.

The Nobody walked out the door and closed it behind him.

The next second an angry Louise burst open the door, only to find no one behind it.

She let at a yell at frustration as her familiar had vanished. She only hoped that he would at least keep his promise to return, or else she could kiss her future as a mage goodbye.

Unaware to the two of them, there had been an observer in the room. Said observer could only squeak as it clambered onto the window and began to clamber onto a series of cracks along the walls. It need to report this to it's old friend.

* * *

Roxas appeared on top of the tower only to notice that there was four more towers and a larger tower in the center.

He opened a Corridor of Darkness and jumped through it onto the top of the tower.

Roxas made himself comfortable and gazed at the spectacle in front of him.

Above him were the stars and the moons illuminating the night sky. To his sides were tall mountains going far into the distance that gradually sloped into forested hills. And to his other side was plains as far as the eye could see and at the very edge of ot it were the flickering lights of a settlement.

All in all it was beautiful word to start a new, despite the rocky start.

Roxas placed Oblivion down on the ground right beside him and pulled out something he hadn't used in such a long time.

His journal, he hadn't been able to use it at all since Riku defeated him.

It was about time he updated it.

So taking out a pen, he jotted down just three words that were long over do.

_Day 365: Rebirth._

* * *

**The screen flickers as the chapter ends and the author reappears.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and I hoped that you all enjoyed this chapter, but I believe it is time for buisness now. So let us begin shall we.***

***Anyway this is the first real chapter and I hoped that you all enjoyed how I portrayed everything***

***As of right now the relationship between Roxas and Louise is rocky at best, but considering their circumstances I really don't blame them all that much. It will be like this for a while, but the bond will start to mend next chapter.***

***As for the presences...well you all should know who one of them is. As for the other...well that will be a surprise for many of you all unless you can guess who it is.***

***Anyway before we move on there is still two issues. Canonunity and the harem.* **

**The author summons a whiteboard and begins to write on it.**

***As I have only gone through about a quarter portion of the books and anime I thought that I would small timeline of what I have so far. This timeline is subject to change when I move further down the canon, but this is what I have for now.***

**The author flips the board around and it read:**

**Prologue arc: current/maybe needs a new name.**

**Mott arc**

**Fouquet arc**

**Charming Fairies arc**

**Albion Arc**

**Tarbes arc: really looking forward to that one**

**Coronation arc**

**Retribution arc: KH2 end and another I can't wait for.**

**Wales arc**

**Tristian Holiday arc.**

***And that is all I have on the schedule for now. I hope you all will look forward go these upcoming arcs.***

***As for the harem, well have quit a bit new members.***

**The author erases the whiteboard before writing on ot againa and displaying the contents on it.**

**Siesta**

**Kirche**

**Tabitha**

**Henrietta**

**Tiffania.**

***And they are all I have for now. I might need some help with developing the romance with Kirche, but other then that I have everything else under control.***

***There is some room for suggestion if anyone else has any ideas. Just leave a review or PM on the matter and I'll get back to you.***

***Anyway next chapter should be out in a while and it will cover Roxas meeting Siesta and few extra things, so I hope that you will enjoy it.***

***If you have any questions just leave a review or a PM and I'll get back to you later.***

***So until next time, ciao!***

**The author waves goodbye as the screen fades to black.**


	3. Siesta

**The screen starts to flicker before a theater appears and the author is fiddling with the projector.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and welcome back to another chapter of The Familiar of Twilight...which will begin once I get this thing fixed up that is.***

***And before you ask no I haven't read anyomore chapters or seen season 2 yet. I was, but decided to work on this chapter first.***

***As I have mentioned this chapter will cover Roxas meeting Siesta and few other things including developing his relationship with Lousie a little due to a few things happening this chapter and him interacting with a few of the characters. Also be including a few surprises that I hope you all will enjoy.***

**The projector light flickered for a bit before going out.**

***Alright this thing is fixed, so let us begin.***

***First I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Familiar of Zero.***

***Secondly just sit back, relax, maybe pit some music on and enjoy. I will see you all at the end of the chapter.***

**The projector flared to life and the chapter begins.**

* * *

**Siesta**

* * *

The sound of crashing thunder in the distance rose Roxas from his sleep. Off towards the mountains he saw a storm passing through them and the slightest edges of the sun starting to rise behind them.

The Nobody stretched himself out before opening a Corridor of Darkness and emerged in a courtyard below.

He had a favor to acomplish after all and he had no clue on how to do laundry after all. So it would be for the best if he sought someone to help him out with it after all.

Roxas was about to go seek someone out, when he was stunned by picking up something on his senses. Something that shouted even exist here at all.

Without even thinkimg the Nobody bolted back into the school, keen on confirming if his senses were playing tricks on him or not. So he rushed past half asleep staff member and the occasional student or two.

After what seemed to be about 10 minutes of searching, he found the person he was looking for.

Someone bearing a heart of pure light.

That someone was a half asleep looking woman with black hair and blue eyes who looked to be a little older then him physically and was around the same height if not a bit shorter. She was dressed in a maid uniform like a number of those that he passed on the way to find her.

That did not detract from the fact that her heart was pure light, like that of the Seven Princesses of Heart. He thought that they were the only ones with hearts of pure light. But during his trips to Beast's Castle with Xaldin the readings of Belle's hearts showed that it wasn't one of pure light and he didn't find out her roll until he reunited with Sora.

"Are you okay?" The maid asked waving her in front of his face.

"I'm fine, I'm still a little tired." Roxas said somewhat truthfully, getting her to nod.

Deciding to push his thoughts away for later, the Nobody decided to focus on the task he was originally going to focus on.

"Tough can I ask you something?" Roxas ask, pulling out Louise's clothes from his bag. "I was asked to wash these clothes, but to tell you the truth I do not know how to wash them. So can you please help me out and teach me?"

"Of course, I would be happy to help." The maid said with a smile before gestering for Roxas to follow her. "So I take it that you are Louise's familiar then?"

"That is correct, though how did you know?" Roxas asked, getting the maid to giggle.

"Your clothes, no one else in the academy has clothes like yours." The maid said, getting Roxas to nod. "So what is it like being a familiar?"

"Honestly I have no clue, never got to interact with her much yesterday. So I won't really know til I take care of these clothes and wake her up." He said, getting the maid to nod. "I do not know that much about Louise, is there anything you can tell me about her..."

"Siesta, it's Siesta and unfortunately I don't know much about her besides rumours. I have served here a few times in the past. What I do know is that I and the other maids usually have to cleaner messes sometimes." Siesta sighed out.

"It's alright." Roxas said while shrugging.

"If you say so, but you seem to be taking your situation rather well." Siesta said, causing the Nobody to sigh.

"Believe me when I say I have been through worst." Roxas said, causing Siesta to stop and to stare at him in an expression that was all but unknown to him.

It was concern, minus the two precences only Naminé and Axel had been truly concerned about him in his lifetime. So he was truly touched to see someone else care about him. He supposed that it was some form of irony that someone with a heart full of light to care for someone devoid of a heart like himself.

Shaking those thoughts out of his head, he turned to Siesta and gave her a smile in order to reassure her.

"If you are going to ask about it, I'm alright. I'm putting everything behind me before being summoned. I'm moving forward from it all and just focusing on my new life." Roxas said with a small smile.

He had decided last night that he would wash his hands clean of it all last night.

The Organization, The Heartless, The Nobodies, DiZ, and Sora.

He was done with them all. Though that wasn't to say that he wouldn't be prepared for when they came for him, which he knew they would one day. But for now he would carve out his own life here on this world. He didn't have anything left after all.

Luxord and Demyx, while they were friends they weren't close and he knew they would be after him if they knew he was still alive.

Naminé, he wasn't sure if she was still alive or not. But it would be worth checking out in the future. She was technically his other half due to the way they were created and last he knew DiZ had her. But as much as he disliked Riku for what he did to him, he knew there was no way he would allow DiZ to do anything to her.

Axel, he wasn't sure if he killed him or not after their last battle. But of he was still alive, he just hoped the best for his best friend. Yet if was truly gone for good, then he would miss him.

Either way, all that had left now was to continue forward with his new life.

Siesta looked him over for a few moments before sighing.

"If you do not wish to talk about it, then that is alright by me. But if you wish to talk to someone else I will always be available." Siesta said with a smile, getting the Nobody to nod with a smile of his own.

It was nice to have someone who was honestly concerned about him.

"Well if you say so, then can you tell me a bit more about this place?" Roxas asked, getting Siesta to nod.

"Certainly." She said as they resumed their walk.

Unaware that they were being observed.

Their watcher let out a little squeak before it disappeared into a nearby crevice in the wall.

* * *

Roxas was currently had a small smile on his face as he walked over to Louise's room, her clothes folded under his arm.

He had talked to Siesta while she taught him on how to wash Louise's clothes by hand.

She had told him a bit of the world he was on, Halkeginia and that he was currently in the Tristaniain Academy of Magic located in a country of the same name. She also told him that this world was basically run by mages or as they were also called nobles who governed the commoners or people without magic like Siesta. This was due to the world's goverment being founded by a man that everyone called the Founder, Brimir. His son's and apprentice founded the areas the would later become Tristain, Albion, Gallia, and Romalia thousands of years later.

All in all it was an interesting learn experience for the Nobody.

But the thing that he considered the most was Siesta.

She was nicest person he had ever meet personally besides Naminé. After everything that had happened with him, it was a nice change of pace to talk with someone about anything else then matters of lacking a heart or Sora.

So he could safetly say that she was his first real friend in a long time after this morning alone, something that she seemed happy about.

Sadly once he had finished with the clothes, another maid had come to get her. They needed all staff available for preparations for breakfast.

Still Siesta and him had agreed to see each other around and Roxas hopped that he would the chance to see his new friend soon.

Roxas stopped what he was doing as he the strongest heart that he had sensed in the academy, beating the blue haired girl's by quite a margin coming up behind him.

The source was an old man with the longest beard he had ever seen wearing black robes, had a wooden staff in one hand, and the other...was that a mouse?

Said mouse squeaked once it saw the Nobody and it clambered up to his shoulder.

Taking into account the man's description, the strength of his heart, and the mouse Roxas know who the man was as Siesta hade told him.

Osmand, the headmaster of the academy and a bit of a pervert as Siesta had told him rather flatly.

"What can I do for you headmaster?" Roxas asked with his guard up. He figured the headmaster of such an academy wouldn't be purposely walking up to him for a social visit.

"I am not your headmaster nor you are one of my students, so please call me Osmand or Old Osmand like everyone behind my back." Osmand said with a small chuckle, confusing the Nobody.

He had never seen an authoritative figure so flippant about someone insulting them like that.

Considering that the last authoritative figure he met was Xemnas, Osmand was an improvement. Then again anyone else would be an improvement over him.

"Still as for your answer I was hopping that I would catch up to you before you woke up Mrs. Vallière after you were done talking with the maid, Siesta if I recall." Osmand said before Roxas drew Oblivion from his bag, the Keyblade vibrating softly in return.

He should have known that he would be spied on.

"Calm yourself boy, I had Chuchu keep an eye on you my boy and for good reason." Osmand said sternly while gesturing to the mouse on his shoulder, obviously his familiar. "I had to see of you were a threat to my students or not. You brandished the same sword against Mrs. Vallière who you are now bounded to with movements I have been told is similar to that of a trained soldier. So I had Chuchu keep an eye on you."

"And what did you learn?" Roxas asked cautiously as he put Oblivion away, reluctantly finding the man justified for spying on him.

"That you are a troubled young man with a past that he would move forward from, not unlike some of my students. I won't pry into it if you wish, but I do wish to know what your plans are concerning Mrs. Vallière?" Osmand asked, causing the Nobody to sigh.

"Simple, I owe her for giving me a chance to exist. But if Louise thinks she could treat me like a slave then I am leaving." Roxas said honestly, getting the headmaster to sigh.

"Good luck with that boy. Mrs. Vallière has the pride of at least five nobles, half as much as her eldest sister thank the Founder. I can only handle one Éléonore thank you very much." The headmaster said with a shudder before regaining his composer. "However I believe that you won't have much issues with that. Considering how you handled her last night, I believe that you have nothing to worry about."

"Thank you...I think?" The Nobody asked, honestly not sure on how to respond to that.

"It's no problem, though I believe you should wake Louise up, breakfast should be ready not long from now and I wish to talk to her before then." Osmand said, getting Roxas to nod. Before the Nobody could take another step, the headmaster spoke up again. "Though I have one final question, I can tell that you are trained, but..."

"If you are asking if I had killed anyone, I haven't. I was trained to kill monsters and that is all I have ever killed." Roxas interjected, causing Osmand to study him before nodding as he could tell that the boy in front of him was telling the truth.

Well then again he wasn't 100% sure that he killed Axel and the Heartless were basically monsters, so technically he was telling the truth.

Though he had no idea why he felt a pang in his chest, or why he felt Oblivion vibrate softly through his bag.

Brandishing those thoughts for later, Roxas opened the door to Louise's room and placed the folded clothes on her dresser. He walked over to the still sleeping pinkette and nudged her in the shoulder. She let out a small groan and just rolled onto the side. He nudged her again only to get the same reaction once again.

Sighing, the Nobody nudged her again but with a bit more force this time.

Louise let out a groan as she groggily wiped her eyes and turned to face Roxas.

"Who are you?" She groaned out, causing Roxas to once again sigh.

"I'm the one who you summoned yesterday." Roxas told the groggy pinkette.

"Now I remember." Louise said as she stretched herself out, hiding the fact that she was glad that he was back. He was the only thing that was keeping her from being expelled after all. "I hoped that you at least managed to take care of my clothes last night."

Roxas just pointed to her clothing on her dresser and to her satisfaction it looked clean and properly folded.

"Good." Was all Louise said before spreading her arms. "Now dress me." She ordered.

"Can you please repeat that?" Roxas said, not entirely believing what she was saying.

"I said dress me." Louise said a little more irritably now.

So he wasn't hearing things.

"You need my help to get dressed?" The Nobody asked in disbelief.

"Of course not, but a noble never dresses themselves when they have a serpent around." Louise said, causing Roxas to frown.

He made it quite clear last night what he was, but it seems like that she was still being stubborn about it.

"I said it last night and I will say it again. We are partners, not servant and master." Roxas said, getting Louise to fume in anger.

"You know what, that is it! Let me make clear to you what it is you are. You are my familiar, my servant, my slave, not my partner!" Louise shouted, causing Roxas to frown. Before it turned into a small grin as he saw that Louise was digging her own grave. "I summoned you to this world, making you mine to command as I am your master! Now you will dress me now or no food for you for week!"

Roxas could only shake his head at her, Osmand was right about her pride as a noble and it will be her downfall.

"The answer is no, you are more then capable of dressing yourself." Roxas said, stunning her.

Familiar's weren't supposed to do this, they were supposed to do everything you asked them to do. Hey Roxas was rebelling against her every order.

It seems like a punishment was in order.

"If that is how you honestly feel, then I will have to punish you!" Louise said, reaching for the whip she kept in her dresser.

Only to be surprised by the smell of burnt leather and ashes instead.

"That is quite enough Mrs. Vallière!" Osmand demanded from her doorway, getting Roxas to smile and Louise to look fearfully as him. "I was waiting for you to get changed before we talked, but instead it seems like I have to step in earlier then I expected. Roxas leave us be while I set her straight!"

"Sure thing." Roxas said before sending Louise a quick look before leaving the room.

"Now then, Miss Vallière, do you know why I am here?" Osmand asked sternly.

"Because my Familiar brought you here." Louise said haughtily, only to wither under the headmaster's stern glance before he sighed.

"No, I came here for two reasons. First is that I sent word to your family that you managed to summon a familiar." He said, getting Louise to freeze up. "I have a reply from Cattleya and that she is proud of you and encourages you to continue to pursue your dreams. Though she also asks that you treat you familiar correctly. Something that you have already failed to do so already."

"I suppose I did." Louise said, reluctantly. While secretly praying that she never find out about this.

She loved her second elder sister to death,…but when it came to animals she could be even scarier then mother at times and that was saying something!

She remembered one time Éléonor messed with one of her cats, well it was one of the few times she had the pleasure of seeing her eldest sister being taken down a peg or two.

"So nothing else?" Louise asked, getting the headmaster to shake his head. "I thought so." She sighed out.

"I'm sure you will get replies from the rest of your family soon enough." Osmand shaking with the shake of his head. "Now onto the second matter of hand, your familiar."

"What about him, he is nothing but rebellious towards me!" Louise shouted, only to be silenced by a stern glare from the headmaster.

"He is giving you a chance Louise, far more then anyone else I can say in the same predicament. No human known has ever been summoned as a familiar in the thousands of years the ritual has been around. So my only guess is that the results of the ritual was different from how it usually happens. Tell me Mrs. Vallière, is the connection between familiar and summoner still there?" Osmand asked, getting Chuchu to nod at the question.

Louise thought about it for a moment before nodding.

"It's there, but there is nothing else to it." Louise said, getting Osmand to nod.

"Just as I thought, you should be lucky you summoned Roxas. He is willing to give you a chance, just one so you better listen to me with what I'm about to say and swallow your pride for a few minutes." Osmond said sternly.

Louise wanted to refute what her headmaster was saying and blamed it all on her familiar…but she held her tongue.

For Osmond was right.

No one wanted to be the familiar of someone like her after all. If her familiar was of any indication then any human or someone with the same intellect would have no hesitation bout disobeying there master. He could have left during the night, but instead he kept true to his word.

But he was giving a chance and if she pushed to hard, he would run away. Worst case scenario she would be expelled, stripped from her title of nobility and reduced to a commoner. Next to worse Osmond reports her punishing of her disobedient familiar to Cattleya and facing her wrath.

Neither was a good option, especially the later!

So she was forced to swallow a little bit of her pride for now, but it had better be worth it!

"And what do you have to say headmaster?" Louise asked, through gritted teeth.

Osmand could only sigh at that.

At least she was willing to listen.

With Louise's condition, she could only cause things to explode at the simplest of spells. Earning her no small amount of mockery from a good portion of the student body, having to learn to take care of her own basic necessities like a commoner, and a whole pile of bills for property damage.

She could've been expelled by now for the later two reasons alone, but he refused and had the support of some of the teaching staff behind him to prevent said attempts to expel her.

They all saw one thing in common, Louise had a massive amount of potential to her just like her mother. She had the potential to do great things, but her pride, slight disdain for commoners, and her ability to produce explosions only hindered it.

Maybe her experiences with her familiar will help draw it out. Better in a setting like the academy then in war like he did.

And with the current situation in Albion that might be a reality soon.

Shaking his head of the those thoughts, Osmond began to speak.

"I'm asking to at least treat your familiar with the same kind of decency you would show one of the servants employees at the academy. Roxas might be your familiar, but he is not your slave. He said that he was willing to do some favors for you, so find out what he would be willing to do for you. If it is nothing then you will have the right to punish him. However nothing inhuman like the whip or threatening to starve him or else you will suffer punishment and depending on the cause, suspension." Osmond said, getting Louise to huff.

So it seemed that she would get so leeway if her familiar wasn't willing to do anything, which she saw as something that won't happen.

Still at most she would have to treat her familiar as someone of equal standing as a servant, something she can live with. Though she was a bit upset at losing some of the punishments for dealing with a rowdy familiar, she supposed it was better then facing punishment from the academy.

"Anything else?" Louise asked, her tone portraying slight annoyance.

"Yes there is. Roxas will be provided a few spare uniforms by the academy as well as a seat at the 2nd year table alongside yourself and one in the back row of classes alongside where the familiars are. The rest of the basic necessities I leave to you to look over. Other than that make sure that he follows the academy's rules and do not make up any additional rules just so you could punish him for disobedience." The headmaster said, getting Louise to sigh.

She supposed that she could live with those conditions.

"Finally I wish for you to get to know your familiar a bit better." Osmand said as he began to scratch his familiar between it's ears getting the mouse to squeak in delight. "You are bonded with him for the rest of your life. So it is for the best to get to know one another. It doesn't have to be instant, but I ask that you at least make an effort to in the near future in the near future. So you believe that you can do all of that Miss Vallière?"

Louise pondered his words for a minute before letting out a sigh.

"Fine I will follow your orders headmaster, if only to not be expelled." Louise said with a huff, figuring that this was the best.

This was going to be a little better then what she thought was going to happen. Of course there was some limits on what she could do with her familiar, but she still had some free reign over what she could do to him.

Osmond let out a small smile at that.

It seems he had at least gotten through to her somewhat.

"Miss Vallière I do hope if that is all, I suggest that you get dressed. Breakfast shall be done by now." He said, getting Louise to nod.

Osmond just nodded and began to walk out the door before turning to face her one last time.

"I do hope things work out with Roxas. I would hate to have to expel you Miss Vallière. You have so much potential inside of you that is just waiting to be unlocked. I believe that his presence mean that it should be unlocked soon." He said, stunning her before leaving the room.

Louise snapped herself out of her stupor before she began to dress herself, grumbling about not getting her familiar to do it for her.

She had been dressing herself like a commoner since her first year in order as servants at the academy were forbidden to. All the other students had relied on magic to do so as far as she could tell, so it irked her that she had to dress herself by hand or risk incinerating her clothes again trying to levitate them.

Something she would have to give up on seeing as Osmond had just laid down the rules on what she could do to her familiar for the most part.

But she will listen to his advice for now, not just because of the threat of expulsion if her familiar ran away.

No, it was because Osmond had just announced that she had potential.

Something that she could only count the number of people who acknowledged that with one hand.

Given all here previous attempts at magic had literally blown up in her face it made sense.

Still despite this Osmond was probably right about her familiar.

He didn't explode when she summoned him or when she initiated the bond, so that was a good sign that things might change soon.

Still that didn't really matter in the long run. As long as she proved every single person who doubted her that she was a mage, and not a Zero!

* * *

Osmond smiled as he closed the door behind him.

That went better then he thought it would.

"So what happened?" Roxas asked, as he had been waiting across the hall.

"I did what I said would do and set her straight. Knowing her, she will cause fewer problems for you now. But if she treats inhumanly let me know and I will set her straight out again. But I still expect you to follow the rules of this academy even if you are not a student and that you will still have to answer to Louise despite the conditions I have laid out to her." Osmond said, getting the Nobody to nod.

He had already planned on doing so anyways, he owed Louise that much.

"Is there anything else Osmond?" Roxas asked the headmaster.

"Nothing at all my boy, but I will send someone to give you clothes this afternoon. Other then that please do not cause too much trouble for Miss Vallière." Osmond said.

"I won't start anything unless she does first." Roxas said honestly, getting Osmond to sigh.

"I suppose that is for the best, until next time Roxas." Osmond said before walking down the hall.

Once he had reached the stars, Chuchu squeaked to his master.

"I know old friend, we must keep a careful eye on those two, especially after what Colbert told us earlier." Osmond sighed out.

What Colbert had found last night was a shocker.

That Roxas was possibly Gandálfr, the legendary familiar of the Founder. Someone with the strength to combat thousands of warriors at once. Considering he already seemed like a capable warrior in his own right from what he gleamed from the boy already, it would truly frightening to imagine what he was like at full strength.

Thank the Founder he didn't seem like the type to cause or to seek conflict.

But that also raised a good question about Louise as well.

Gandálfr could only have been summon by one type of mage, but there had been no other besides Brimir himself 6,000 years ago. So it was hard to tell if Louise was the same as well, but if it was then he was right about her potential.

Still he needed to investigate it fully before he could draw any conclusions, it has been over 6,000 years since the power of that magic faded into myth after all. So it was going to be difficult to prove anything after all.

Besides there was something else that bothered him, it was the reports of Roxas's sword. The description reminded him of something that happened decades ago, but his memory of those events was a bit hazy.

He would have to check the storage room later to make sure that he was right.

Still that could wait till later, he had to make perpetrations for this year's Familiar Exhibition after all.

It wasn't every year that royalty visits the academy after all.

* * *

Roxas had been waiting patiently for Louise to change after Osmond left.

He didn't really understand why that she would take so long to dress.

But then again she could still be processing what Osmond had told her and the only woman he had truly had any experience being around was Larxene and that was something that he wouldn't wish on anyone.

So he just waited for a bit before he felt something brush against his leg.

Looking down he saw a large red lizard like creature with a flaming tail. It out a little croak as it brushed against his leg. The Nobody was unsure of what to do until the creature rub it's head against his leg.

Taking that as a clue, Roxas leaned down and began to scratch the creature's head. Causing it to lean into his hand and croak happily, sparks dancing from its mouth.

"Familiar, what are you doing?" A fully dressed Louise demanded as she stepped out of her room. "Isn't that Zebrst's familiar!"

"It seems that Flame likes you." A flirtatious voice said from behind Roxas. He turned to see that behind him was the same red haired woman from yesterday, Kirche if he remembered correctly. She then turned to face Louise and gave her a broad grin. "Good morning Louise."

"Good morning…Kirche." Louise spat out venomously, causing Roxas to blink.

She wasn't even this upset when he disobeyed her, there must have been some history between the two for her to act like this.

Kirche looked between the two before a wirily grin spread across her face.

"So how much is Louise paying you to act as her familiar?" She asked mockingly surprising Roxas, and angering Louise.

"What did you say?!" Louise demanded angrily.

"I'm asking how much are you paying that commoner to be your familiar. And also for the mage that made it look like he was being somewhere else, I'll admit that was a nice touch." Kirche said as Flame walked over from Roxas and towards his master.

Louise's face was turning a very vibrant shade of red.

Roxas decided to interject before she could erupt.

"Louise didn't pay me anything, she truly did summon me yesterday. As for someone else trying to summoning me…I have no clue about that." The Nobody said, unwilling to at least talk about his previous situation quite yet to anyone.

"You don't have to lie to me handsome." Kirche said with a grin, causing Louise to fume.

"I'm not." Roxas said honestly, causing Kirche to furrow her brow for a moment before she studied him for a few seconds. She found no trace of him lying to her.

"I see, well then do you mind telling me your name handsome." Kirche asked, scratching Flame's head.

"Roxas." The Nobody said, getting Kirche to approach him.

"I see then Roxas, how about you like to be my familiar." Kirche said as she leaned forward, displaying a bit of her cleavage. "You get along great with Flame from what I have seen and I can guarantee that I can be better company then what the Zero could ever be. So what do you say about that handsome?"

Louise was beyond furious.

How dare that cow try to seduce her familiar!

She drew her wand and prepared to cast a spell.

To hell with the orders from the headmaster, if she could teach Zerbst and her familiar a lesson then whatever punishment would be worth it!

"I would have to decline that." Roxas said evenly and as he took a step back, his gaze not leaving her face.

Both Louise and Kirche were shocked, with the former dropping her wand.

It was a wide known fact throughout the school that no male student and on occasion Osmond had been able to resist Kirche's charms, it had been a longstanding fact that had been established since day one of the academy.

Until today that is.

Louise had to keep herself from snickering as her rival lost her composure and a myriad of emotions crossed her face. A moments Kirche managed to regain her composure and sent a confused glare at Roxas.

"Why?" She asked, surprised that someone had resisted her.

"As much as I wish that I wasn't Louise's familiar, but I suppose I owe her that much at the very least. If not more." Roxas said, shocking them both once again.

Although Louise was a bit furious about his remark and Kirche was still a little stunned at Roxas, those feelings were buried by the confusion they both had.

If Roxas had openly said that he would prefer not to be Louise's familiar, then what exactly did he owe her that would cause him stay around then.

Their confusion was broken when Louise's stomach rumbled and her face turned red, this time in embarrassment as her familiar and Kirche were staring at her. The later having a small grin.

"F-Familiar I believe we have wasted enough time with Kirche." Louise said while trying and failing to save face, gesturing for Roxas to follow.

"Alright." Roxas replied before facing Kirche. "Until next time Kirche, and you too Flame."

He turned around and heard Flame croaked behind him.

"You too Roxas." Kirche said as he disappeared further down the hall behind Louise with a smirk and a fire in her eyes.

It had been quite sometime since someone resisted her. Maybe she had grown complacent here with men practically throwing themselves at her here.

So what better way to sharpen her skills then with a challenge like Roxas, and what a interesting challenge that would be.

* * *

A while later Louise opened the doors to the Alviss Dining Hall with her familiar trailing not that far behind.

The rest of the trip was in eventful, neither she nor Roxas speaking up about anything.

Nor did they say anything else as the two of them walked towards the middle table and what Louise could guess was there seats.

For Louise it was nothing more then a small feast before her seat, a typical breakfast for a noble.

For Roxas it was nothing then a bowl of stew and a loaf of bread, a commoner's breakfast.

Roxas went a head of her and too her surprise pulled her seat out.

"What, I at least it is rude enough not to pull out a woman's chair." Roxas said bluntly.

He had drilled into his head by Vexen of all people, who had the sense to try to teach him some etiquette in order to help blend indifferent worlds.

Louise stared at him for a second before she huffed and simply sat in her seat, her hunger winning over her desire to chide her familiar for being so blunt about it.

Roxas pushed her in and then took his own seat, getting stares from some of the other mages.

After all the tables and the dining hall was for nobles only, but here was a familiar eating at the same table with them.

Familiars were not allowed to eat in here after last year when someone summoned a beaver as a familiar and it ate all of the chairs, Which was an odd sight as they were thought to have been extinct in Tristain for about a century.

Still no one said anything as the two brought there hands in prayer.

"Oh Great Founder Brimir, and our lady the Queen, we thank you for this humble meal that you have graciously provided us this morning." They prayed together, with a few curious looks thrown towards Roxas afterwards.

He ignored it as the two of them started eating, while Louise keeping a not so subtle eye on her familiar.

She was still curious on what Roxas owed her, but decided to save it for after breakfast.

Speaking of which he was eating his stew without asking for anything else and using the wrong spoon as well, though she could have expected that as he was a commoner. Still thought that he would have begged and asked for more food like most other commoners. But here he was just contempt with his meager portions.

To Roxas it was just enough to last a while, Nobody's didn't need to eat that much anyway. Still this was some of the best food he had ever eaten though.

So they continued to eat in silence, until Louise had finished first and to her surprise her familiar was just finishing up his stew.

"How are you not finished yet?" Louise questioned.

Roxas just held out his hand for a second as he finished the stew before speaking.

"I was just savoring the taste." Roxas said, getting her to nod. Figuring that a commoner like him hadn't had a meal as good as the ones at the academy in Founder knows how long.

Louise took a quick look around and saw that a good portion of the nobles had already left the table. She did feel her blood boil when she saw Kirche down the table wink at Roxas, who had started to eat his bread and did not notice.

"Familiar follow me." Louise stated angrily as she got up, not even caring that Roxas was still eating his bread. They walked out of the dining hall to see that the courtyard outside had been set up with various tables and staff moving through the second year students and their familiars.

"I take it that there is no classes today so that the students could get used to their familiars." Roxas observed while taking another bite of the bread.

"That is correct, so we have an entire day to figure out…you have got to be kidding me!" Louse shouted as midway through her talking, the dragon from yesterday barged between her and Roxas.

The dragon looked between Roxas and the piece of bread before the Nobody thrust what was left of the bread in front of him.

"Go ahead." Roxas said while watch as the dragon looked between the two of them before taking the bread and started to chew it.

"You really shouldn't feed another person's familiar unless you have their permission." Louise commenter with a flat look as the dragon started to rub it's massive head against the Nobody.

"I doubt that it would stop this one from asking for food." Roxas said, getting a look of what he guessed to be mock hurt from the dragon before it continued to rub against him. The Nobody could only chuckle at its reaction before scratching one of the ridges above it's eyes, causing the dragon to purr and coo as it continued to rub against him.

"Slyphid?" A quiet voices questioned, causing the dragon, Louis, and Roxas to turn to face the same blue haired girl from yesterday with Kirche and Flame to her side.

Slyphid looked between its master and the Nobody before rubbing against him one more time before returning to the blue haired girl's side.

"I have to say Roxas I am surprised, Flame is one thing but Slyphid is a whole other story. She will bit anyone who touches her that isn't Tabitha." Kirche said as Tabitha pulled out the book she was carrying and went back to reading.

"Zerbst what are you doing here?" Louise said through gritted teeth.

"Calm down Zero, of I wanted to try anything I would have. I was just with Tabitha to see why Slyphid ran off." Kirche said, as the dragon in question cooed from Tabitha's side. "Though I never expected that she would come after you handsome, you seem to have a way with familiars." She said as Flame walked over to his side.

"It seems so." Roxas said as he scratched the salamander atop it's head.p, causing it to croak happily.

The moment was broken when the sounds of slapping occurred, causing everyone to turn to a table where a brown haired girl and a woman with blond curls slapped a blond haired young man much to the surprise of a nearby maid.

To Roxas's surprise, the same maid turned out to be Siesta.

"It seems like Guiche finally got what was coming to him." Kirche commented.

"Guiche?" Roxas asked, figuring that was the name of the young man who got slapped once again by the blond haired girl.

"Guiche de Gramont, a pertinacious playboy who has been flirting with maids last year while dating Monmon. It seems like he decided to chase a first year this time and it is coming back to bite him." Louise said angrily.

Roxas just nodded at that, not really caring about it as the two girls stormed off.

All that changed a moment later when Guiche got out from his seat and slapped Siesta to the ground and caused her to scream it in pain as he started to yell at her.

If Roxas was capable of feeling anger, then it would be nothing but unbridled rage for what he did to his friend.

The Nobody was about to walk over there and give him a piece of his mind, when with the swish of a rose Siesta started to be covered in earth and she started to panic.

Roxas bolted towards them, creating a cloud of dust that blew into Louise's face.

To hell with a piece of his mind, before the end of the day Guiche will pay dearly for harming his friend!

* * *

"Please Lord Guiche, Lady Katie only asked that I deliver the soufflé nothing else!" Siesta begged as the dirt coated over half of her legs and it was starting to hurt.

"Couldn't you see me with someone else!" Guiche demanded as he flicked his rose and two curved outcrops of earth rose to the sides of Siesta. "You are the one who made those two girl's cry, this is all your fault! So you need to be punished!"

"I-I…" She tried to stutter out as tears started to appear in her eyes, but the enraged Noble was hearing none of that.

"Don't bother, I have no plans of killing you. But maybe spending a few hours in a make shift coffin will teach you a lesson." Guiche said as he his rose, causing the dirt to hasten.

"Please reconsider!" Siesta begged, the thought of being buried alive scaring her worst then death.

"Too late." Guiche said coldly as he swung his rose down, causing the earth to swallow her up and a massive dust cloud to erupt.

"That will teach you a lesson." Guiche said as he flicked his rose, expecting to see a small mound of earth as the dust cleared.

He did see a small mound of earth, only it was destroyed underneath the feet of Roxas, hugging Siesta as she cried into his shoulder.

"Fast." Tabitha commented as she lowered her staff.

She was prepared to rescue the maid, but it seems Roxas beat her to it with nothing but sheer speed.

Siesta continued to cry into his shoulder, happy that she wasn't buried into the ground and that her new friend had saved her.

How Roxas didn't really notice that, as he was focusing on making Guiche pay for attempting to harm his friend.

"You dare interfere?!" Guiche demanded furiously.

"I dare." Roxas said coldly, shocking most of the nobles present.

Many of the will admit that Guiche was probably taking things a bit to far, but she was just a common maid and he had planned on freeing her effectually. But here was the Zero's familiar, a commoner openly defying Guiche, a noble. Something that was mostly unheard of.

"Do you need to be taught a lesson as well familiar, you need to learn your place after all." Guiche said while brandishing his rose.

Roxas with his free hand reached into his bag and pulled out Oblivion and brandished it and the noble, the Keyblade angrily vibrating in his hand.

The two stood there for a few moments, waiting for the other to make the first move before Guiche sighed.

"It seems like neither one of us is going to back down from this, are we?" Guiche asked while rubbing his hand through his hair for dramatic effect.

"I know that I am not." Roxas said evenly.

"I see then, well as I am a graceful noble I will give you a chance. If you get on your knees and beg for forgiveness then I will only punish the maid and if you do not, then I will have no choice but to duel you." Guiche said, getting most of the surrounding nobles to mutter to them selves.

"I will not back down from you harming my friend, so name the time and place." Roxas demanded as he let Siesta go.

" Vestri Court, one hour. Be prepared to learn your place familiar." Guiche stated as he turned around and flipped his cloak for dramatic effect.

Only to trip and fall face first in the ground.

Roxas had to keep himself from smirking as his silent Aero made contact with the mage, his Keyblade humming in appreciation.

No one seemed to have noticed that and seemed to have figured that Guiche only tripped, all except one.

A red faced Guiche picked himself off the ground and walked away in a huff.

"Familiar we are going to find Guiche and apologize for you transactions and maybe he will forgive you!" Louise demanded as she stormed up to the Nobody.

"For what, harming my friend? Not a chance!" Roxas stated, causing Louise to grit her teeth as she looked between him and Siesta.

When in the Founder's name did he became friends with a maid?

"She is just a maid and a commoner, she is not worth the trouble." Louise spat out, causing Siesta to tear up again.

Roxas was about to say something, but someone beat him to it.

"She is also an employee of the academy Mrs. Vallière." A voice called out, getting her to pale as everyone turned towards the speaker.

"Professor Colbert!" Louise said as she took a few steps back as he approached.

The professor surveyed the scream before he settled his gaze onto Roxas.

"I hav heard what is going on and needless to say I approve. I suggest that you spend the time before the duel calming her down after such a harrowing experience. I suggest taking her to the kitchens and explain to Marteau what happened." Colbert said, getting the Nobody to nod.

As much as he to beat Guiche to a pulp, helping Siesta was more important.

"Siesta do you mind leading me to the kitchens?" Roxas asked, getting the maid to compose herself.

"Of course." Siesta nodded before she began to lead the Nobody towards the central building.

As Roxas followed, he felt something brush against his foot, a small glass bottle with a purple liquid inside. Figuring that Guiche dropped it, it was probably better to keep it with him for now. As compensation for harming Siesta.

Louise tried to follow him, but Colbert slammed his staff down in front of her.

The professor scanned over the assembled students before noticing Tabitha leading Kirche away. The blue haired girl and him shared a glance before she continued to lead Kirche away.

He would allowed this instance this one time, for she was the only other person besides Roxas willing to do something.

"I am disappointed in you all." Colbert said to all of the students present. "Not a single one of you were willing to stop Mr. Gramont."

A good portion of the students there had to look ashamed at that. Except Louise.

"But she was a maid and commoner professor, that and Guiche was planning on releasing him later." Louise said, her voice a little shaky.

"But she is still a member of the academy's staff and a he was planning on burying her alive, a fate no one deserves if even to punish someone. As punishment Mr. Gramont will have to pay fines to the academy for attempting to harm one of the staff and will be serving two weeks detention with me after this duel. As for the rest of you, I expect this mess to be cleaned up within the hour without magic." Colbert said while gesturing to the pile of earth Guiche had conjured up, getting most of the students to groan. "This is what you get for letting something like this happen, let that be a lesson to you all!"

Louise didn't know who to hit first, her familiar for causing this mess or Guiche for this punishment.

"Miss Vallière your punishment will be to find Mr. Gramont and inform him of his punishment along with tell him that I will inform his parents of his misbehavior before returning here. If you are not back within the hour you will face an hours detention with me." Colbert said, getting Louise to nod and some of the nobles to mutter about her.

"Of course, professor." Louise said before running of, figuring she could wait a few minutes before looking for Guiche.

It seems like she will be targeting Guiche then and with the added bonus of informing him of his punishment she could get the satisfaction of putting some fear into the playboy before knocking some sense into him.

So she would leave her familiar alone on this matter for now, but after this duel they will have choice words about this especially if he lost.

She would admit that she was prideful, what noble wouldn't be after all.

But she saw how fast he moved and how skilled he was with his sword. Guiche on the other hand was just a dot mage, but he did come from a military background so he was bound to have some tricks up his sleeve. So she was unsure on who would win, but she did hope it was her familiar.

After all it would be a blow to her pride if he lost, and she couldn't have that.

* * *

**The projector died down as the chapter ended and the author was eating some popcorn.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and I hoped you enjoyed this chapter. Ao let us get down to business shall we.***

***As you can see the bond between Roxas and Louise is still pretty rocky...as it will be for a while. The first step has been established for them by Colbert and Osmond, but they both need to come to an agreement for it to happen. Something that will happen soon at least in the next chapter.***

***Also we got introduced to a bunch of characters this chapter and Tabitha already suspects something of him. That will come up next chapter. Also I hoped I captured that characters correctly, if not there is always next chapter to improve.***

***But let us move onto the main focuse of this chapter, Siesta.***

***Tell me how, many people expected for her to be a Princess of Heart. Just imagine the reactions the nobles will have when they find out that a maid is technically royalty. It would be priceless!***

***Still I have a few plans down the road for here and I hope you all will enjoy them.***

***Anyway before we move onto the harem I have a few things to say.***

***First I have to say I am once again surprised at the success of this story.***

***As of posting this chapter, this story has over 70 favorites and 84 followers! Beating out Twilit Mages with only two chapters!...Speaking of which I need to update that, but I have to admit this story just continues to grow by leaps and bounds per chapter and I hope it continues to do so.***

***Secondly I have some bad news for this story, I will not be updating till the fall.***

***Reason being I have to read the next 5 novels and watch the second season to familiarize my self more and help construct my timeline. That and I have to update from No One To Someone and the previous mentioned Twilit Mages. So I hope you all can wait till the fall.***

***Finally, I know I promised that I would update From No One To Someone this month. But I have to push that back till August.***

***I find myself quite busy this month with some difficulties in real life and planning on watching D-Gray Man and the To Aru series. So I will be going on break until August.***

***Now with that out of the way, there is the matter of the harem.***

**The author pulls out a whiteboard and writes on it.**

***Many of you have guessed it and you are correct about one of the presences and by popular demand she is in the harem. So there is no need to say who it is.***

**The author flips over the board to reveal one word.**

**Xion**

***As for the other precense...still not telling, but anyway I believe we are out of time today.***

***If you have any questions just leave a review of PM and I will get back to later. Next chapter will pretty much being Guiche getting his ass kicked by Roxas, so I hope you will all enjoy that.***

***So until next time, ciao!***

**The author snaps his fingers and the screen fades to black.**


	4. Duel

** The screen flickers for a bit before you see yourself in a theater, right next to the author as he loads the reel into the projector.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and welcome back to the long awaited next chapter of Familiar of Twilight.***

***It has been far too long since the last chapter came out, so in order to make up for that I have made this chapter double in length of the entire story so far. So I hope you all enjoy that.***

***Also releasing this chapter on the day before Re: Mind DLC comes out. Which has completely slipped my mind. Been binge watching Clone Wars for weeks in order to prepare for the final season. I have been watching the series from the very beginning so it will be interesting and saddening to see this ride end finally.***

***But enough of my ramblings, let us begin this chapter shall we.***

***First off I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Familiar of Zero.***

***Secondly just sit back, relax, maybe put some music on, and enjoy. I will see you all at the end of the chapter.***

**The author tapped to projector, getting it to flare to life and the chapter to begin.***

* * *

**Duel**

* * *

"So Guiche lashed out at our dear Siesta for accidentally exposing his infidelity with a another student, I should have expected something like this sooner or later. But I didn't think that he would actively try and bury her alive." A tall man in his early forties and in a chief's uniform sighed out as he poured something into a boiling pot and began to stir it together.

The head chief of the academy, Marteau as Roxas came to know immediately came to him as he escorted Siesta in the academy's kitchens 20 minutes ago.

He had assumed that one of the nobles had stirred up some trouble with Siesta, a common occurrence according to the man. Only for it to be much worse then he thought.

So for the last 20 minutes Marteau has been cooking something, perhaps something to help Siesta the Nobody guessed.

"I take it that it is something that a student wouldn't normally do?" Roxas asked, getting chef to nod.

"Burying her alive is something that I only would have expected some of the worst nobles to do. Even then from what I hear he is still a dot mage. Meaning that he could have accidentally harmed her with his magic. Thankfully he did it in the academy otherwise he probably would have gotten away with doing such a thing." Marteau sighed out.

"It's that bad isn't it?" Roxas asked, hearing a little bit about the dichotomy between commoners and nobles from Siesta earlier.

"Sadly it is, commoners are usually powerless against nobles." Siesta said sadly.

"Though not here in the academy. An incident years ago changed the regulations and any student harming a commoner under the academy's employ is a punishable offense that usually results in the offending student's family getting fined. Nothing more humiliating to a noble then having to pay for their children's mistakes." Marteau said as he dumped the contents of the pot into a strainer. "Sure there is an incident every now and then, but never in all my years working for the academy there never has been a student actively trying to severely injure someone like this."

"Please stop reminding me." Siesta said with a shudder.

Just thinking about being back there, covered in dirt and buried in a makeshift coffin just terrified her. Almost being buried scared for more then anything, but staying in there for hours terrified her to no end.

And the possibility of her dying in their…

That last thought was broke the damn and caused Siesta to cry once again, burying her face and her hands and her whole body shivering in fear.

Roxas just stood there for a second, trying to figure out what to do in this situation.

Until he remembered then etiquette lessons Vexen gave him and the only thing that cam to mind.

The Nobody walked over to her and hugged Siesta in order to comfort her.

Siesta was startled by this, but quickly recovered and began to cry into his shoulder and returned his hug. Only for Roxas to flinch and tried to step away.

He had never really been hugged before after all.

Siesta seemed to realize this and cried a little bit harder and began to squeeze him tighter in her embrace.

Wondering what kind of life he had life's to react like that. Roxas had been nothing but kind to her and went above and beyond by saving her from being buried alive. Yet she wondered what kind of life he lived that would make him want to push someone away that hugged him.

The thought of that kind of life only made her sadder and for her to squeeze the Nobody even harder.

Roxas meanwhile stopped trying to escape, but now he was struggling to breath as he felt his ribs starting to buckle under the strain of how tight she was hugging him.

It was the Leechgrave all over again!

"Siesta, you might want to let go of the boy. He looks like he is close to passing out." Marteau said while holding two cups in his hands with steam rising from them, a teasing glint in his eye.

Siesta's face went a flame when she realized what she was doing and immediately let go of the Nobody.

"I am so sorry Roxas!" She said as she checked if Roxas was alright.

"It's alright Siesta, just please don't squeeze me so tightly again please." Roxas wheezed out, trying to refill his lungs with as much air as he possible could.

"I won't." Siesta sighed out as it looked like he was fine.

"Siesta take this, it will help you with your worries and you as well Roxas." Marteau said as he handed the cups to the two of them.

The Nobody took a look inside the cup to see that it was some kind of milk.

One that Siesta seemed to be sipping quite happily.

"Never had before anise milk have you?" Marteau asked, getting the Nobody to shake his head at that.

"Not at all, infact never heard about it before either." Roxas said truthfully, getting the chef to sigh.

"Quite a shame that is. It is a Tristanian specialty from the northern providences of the kingdom. Made from boiling milk and grounded anise seeds, it is an excellent comfort drink. A warm glass will help melt your worries away and calm the mind. So I suggest that you better enjoy it while it is still warm." Marteau said before getting a cup of his own and started to drink.

Roxas took one last quick look at the anise drink before taking a sip.

He had to admit it was a little hot for his taste, but Marteau was correct on it's properties.

It was absolutely delicious.

Roxas took another sip and saw both Marteau and Siesta giving him knowing looks before all three of them preceded to continue to enjoy their drinks.

For the next few minutes all three of them continued to enjoy their drinks in silence, not at all speaking but each of them briefly lost in their own thoughts.

For Siesta it was whatever potential mystery behind Roxas's past and still coming to grips with the horrific experience she had just experienced not that long ago.

For Marteau it was a more devious line of thinking. One that he would have to see where things go first.

For Roxas it was two things.

First was wonder about how similar to this to something Axel once told him about. Hot chocolate he believed it was called. It was supposed to be a nice, hot beverage that is supposed to relax you and is best enjoyed with friends.

He never had it of course, being content with sea salt ice cream and Axel did say it was supposed to be served when it was cold and snowy outside. Considering the only thing he had experienced snow was in the mountains of The Land of Dragons inside of Sora's body and he never had chocolate before he wouldn't really know.

Still he had to suppose this was a good alternative, enjoying what was probably this world's version of hot chocolate and help stifling his desire to pound a certain mage's head into the ground with Oblivion.

Speaking of which, after a few minutes his thoughts changed to one thing and one thing only.

Hurting Guiche.

There were very few people he was willing to hurt.

Xemnas for orchestrating most of the terrible things that have happened in his short existence.

DiZ for imprisoning him, wiping his memories, and forcing him to reunite with Sora

Xigbar and Saïx for being more or less involved with Xemnas, the later especially.

And Riku for being the reason he had to be in DiZ's clutches.

But Guiche for threatening Siesta like that, he made it onto that list.

Just below Xemnas.

A little extreme perhaps, but he did nearly burry alive the first person who had been generally kind to him in forever.

Something that the Nobody was going to make sure Guiche would never think of doing ever again.

"Not even one day and you are already causing trouble in the academy. Though I should say that is was Mr. Gramont is responsible, you are none the less involved." Osmand sighed out while entering the kitchen, breaking Roxas out of his musings.

"I take it that is why you are here Osmand, for the boy then?" Marteau said as he finished his drink.

"And to check on Siesta after everything that has happened." The headmaster said as he walked over to the maid. "And how are you feeling now my dear?"

"I'm alright now headmaster, but to be honest I am still a little shaken up." Siesta said shakily, getting Osmond to nod.

"As you should be, no one comes out of that experience without being the least bit shaken up." He sighed out. "But you should know that Mr. Gramont's family will be informed and will be fined quite a sum of eću for his transactions against yourself. With a portion given to you of course. As for him, he will face a few weeks academic punishment. Normally it would have been longer, but considering that he challenged Roxas to a duel that will suffice."

"Are you sure that is enough for him?" Roxas questioned, a slight edge in his tone as that punishment seemed light compared what he was thinking of doing.

"Quite the contrary actually, it is the right punishment for him. A number of nobles value two things sadly. Their pride and their wealth. The fine alone will cause Mr. Gramont's family to surly cut off his funding at least for a while. But his pride however now that will effectively be destroyed or be quite broken. The fine will cut his access to his family's wealth by a good bit, the detentions and word spreading about what he did will take quite a hit to his reputation, and finally losing in your duel should open his eyes to the world. That much I am sure." Osmond said with a sigh.

"Wait are you saying that Roxas can defeat Lord Guiche?" Siesta said shockingly. "I know he saved me, but he is still a commoner."

"Too be young and naïve, a blessing and a curse." The headmaster sighed out before facing Siesta. "My dear the world is a big place. I have seen nobles fall to commoners, especially ones that have been trained to fight. I am not sure how well Roxas can handle a higher ranked mage, but a dot mage like Mr. Gramont will not able to handle him. Especially with what he is fighting for."

"You got that right." Roxas said as he placed his cup down. "I intend to make him pay for what he did to Siesta, simple as that."

"And how far will you be willing to go in order to achieve this?" Osmond said seriously, getting the Nobody to pause for a bit.

How far was he willing to go.

While Guiche did nearly burry Siesta alive, compared to everyone else he wanted to hurt he was nothing compared to the Organization, DiZ, and Riku.

Just a womanizing punk with an overinflated ego.

Still he could have severely injured Siesta or worse with that stunt.

But he was still just a student and it seemed Osmond has quite the punishment lined up for him when it comes to a noble. Still while humiliating him like that would be beneficial, it wasn't enough for Roxas.

Yet going to far with him would probably only cause him trouble in this world, especially here at the academy.

That and the concerned look Siesta has been giving him since Osmond asked that question made him reconsider.

"He messed with my friend so normally it would be much worse, but since you already have something already planned for it. I suppose that I should settle for breaking his ego, show him how little he truly knows." Roxas said, figuring that this was a good alternative.

Perhaps installing the same fear that the mage put Siesta in should probably be enough.

This seemed to placate Osmond a bit, but Siesta was still giving him a look with an emotion that he couldn't get a reading on it.

The Nobody was thinking about why for a few seconds, before deciding to just ask her about it.

"What's wrong Siesta?" Roxas asked as he approached her.

She stood there for a few moments before letting out a sigh.

"I'm worried." Siesta said worriedly. "Worried about what could happen. The Headmaster did say you could possibly can defeat Lord Guiche, but what if either one of you goes too far. Either one of you could get seriously hurt or worse and if anything like that happens to Lord Guiche then…"

Siesta cut herself, tearing up at the thought of It.

She couldn't handle it, the thought of Roxas being hunted down and killed in retaliation if he killed Lord Guiche. All for defending her.

She couldn't handle it

"Siesta If you are worried about something like that then don't be, I have no intention of going that far. Teaching Guiche a lesson yes, killing him though that is a no. But if it makes you feel any better you can be there to make sure it doesn't happen just incase." Roxas said, hoping to ease her worries.

Honestly he doubt it would ever come to that, but it was probably for the best.

Considering that how his fight with Riku went and how he acted it was probably for the best that he had a friend to watch his back. To help bring him back if he ever go to far.

Axel tried the same way with him, but it was to bring him back to the Organization so that they wouldn't terminate him. It was for the wrong reasons of course, but in the end it was to save his friend.

But now he didn't know whether Axel was alive or not after their last encounter. So with that he only person left that he could call a friend and someone that he could trust.

And that was Siesta.

Speaking the which she was stunned, unsure of what to say.

Roxas was asking her to keep a watch over him during his duel with a Lord Guiche, incase he took things too far. Displaying a great deal of faith in her in order to do so.

But there is one question that she had on her mind.

"Why?" Siesta asked the Nobody. "Why are you asking me to do this. Do you really trust me that much to do so?"

"Of course I, you are the first person to have treated me so kindly in a long time. I consider you a friend Siesta and someone that I can fully trust. The last time I was in any kind of situation similar to this I was reckless and it cost me greatly. So I would like to have someone who I can trust to keep an eye out if do so again. So Siesta can you please do me this for me?" Roxas asked honestly.

Siesta was once again surprised, but she quickly shook it off.

If he was putting this much faith in her, then she might as well returned it.

"If you are willing to put this much trust in me Roxas, then I will keep an eye on you." Siesta said with a small smile, getting one from the Nobody in turn.

"Thank you Siesta." Roxas said, glade to know that once again he had a friend that he could truly trust in.

"It is no problem Roxas." Siesta said.

"Well I hate to interrupt this admittedly touching scene, I have to remind you Roxas that the time for the duel is drawling near. So I would take some time to prepare yourself for the duel just incase." Osmond said, getting the both of them to turn to face them to see both him and Marteau looking at them with a smile and a glint of some kind in their eye.

Roxas had to admit that Osmond had a point, it was probably best to do some practice with Oblivion after this.

He hadn't had a true physical body since DiZ Locke's him away in that virtual prison before reuniting with Sora.

So it was reasonable to assume he might be a little rusty.

It might be a good idea to see how much he needed to fix before he got back to his full strength.

"That sounds like a good idea actually, it has been a while since I had a chance to stretch out at all." Roxas said before turning to Siesta. "I will see you at the duel soon enough, alright."

"Alright, I will see you then." Siesta said with a smile, getting on e from him in return before he turned to face Marteau.

"Thank you for the milk, I really needed it." Roxas said honestly, getting Marteau to smile on his own.

"It was no problem, and if you ever want more feel free to come back here. We commoners have to look out for each other after all." Marteau said, before his smile turned to a grin. "And make sure to teach Guiche a lesson about messing with one of our own like that as well."

"I already plan on it." Roxas said before he turned and gave Siesta one last goodbye and disappeared behind the kitchen's doors.

Which to everyone's surprise opened back a few seconds later to reveal Louise.

"Familiar I know that you are here and you better not be…" Louise's words died in her throat once she saw that Roxas wasn't there at all.

Only a surprised looking Siesta and Marteau.

And the form of her Headmaster giving her a stern glance.

"Miss Vallière if you are looking for Roxas then he just left to prepare for the dual, so I am sure that he will be returning to Professor Colbert soon. Speaking of, did you inform Guiche about his punishment just like he asked?" Osmond said sternly.

"Of course headmaster."Louise said, omitting the fact she was tempted to slap the noble for the trouble he caused.

But it seemed Monmon beat her to it during their confrontation.

"Then why haven't you gone back to Professor Colbert yet then?" Osmond said inquisitively, getting Louise to look nervous. "Did you come here because you were concerned for your familiar, wishing to tell him to give up on the duel, or is it to accuse him of anything is it?"

"The middle one actually, He is going up against a mage after all, I can't have my familiar dishonoring me by losing on the second day after summoning him." Louise said, denying that she was thinking that here familiar was going to make a move on that maid.

Not at all.

Osmond just sighed at that, garnering what Louise was truly thinking of.

"Miss Vallière you shouldn't be worried about that then. Mr. Gramont needs a wake up call to what lies beyond the walls of the academy and Roxas is dueling for his friends honor, only a few causes are nobler then that." Osmond said, gesturing to Siesta and emphasizing the word friend, hoping to get through to Louise on that subject.

Which judging by the the way she flinched at that, it might have worked if just for a little bit.

No telling what the future might bring after all.

"So I would have a little more faith in your familiar Miss Vallière. For your familiar is also representing this duel of honor. So if you think that he is going to fail and pull him out after he has already been challenged, then what does that say about you?" Osmond said, getting Louise to stop what she was going to say and to pause. "If you wish to think it, then I suggest that you do so on the way back to Professor Colbert. Enough time has past that the duel is drawling near and you have spent long enough away that he will get suspicious of something even if you took this long to find Mr. Gramont. So I suggest that you better head back now if you do not wish to get in trouble with him."

"Of course headmaster!" Louise said, bolting out of the kitchen in order not to serve detention. With Osmond's question playing on repeat in the back of her mind.

Said man sighed and turned to Siesta.

"My dear, I know that you are already going to head out. But can you please try to keep an eye on Miss Vallière during the duel. I am afraid if her pride is on the line or the wrong thing angers her, she might try something. I hope that I am wrong, but can you please do so just in case?" He asked, getting Siesta to nod.

"Of course headmaster." She said with a bow, before exiting out of the door.

With that Osmond sighed and turned to Marteau.

"Is there anymore of that Aspen Milk left?" He asked, getting the head chef to shake his head.

"No, but I can make a quick cup and still be in time for the duel. Can't wait to see a noble being taken down a peg or ten." Marteau said excitedly, disappearing into further into the kitchen.

"I bet you are." Osmond sighed out while taking out his pipe, silently bemoaning that it was too early in the day to drink.

Considering that between this, the upcoming Familiar Festival, and the civil war in Albion threatening to spill into Tristian sooner or later he might have to rescind that little rule.

* * *

"Looks like I wasn't as rusty as I thought." Roxas said walked out of a Corridor of Darkness and into an empty hallway, closing the corridor behind him.

He had opened a Corridor to the top of one of the towers when he sensed Louise approaching.

A little mean perhaps, but he was in no mood to deal with her shouting at him at the moment.

After that he slipped off the tower's roof and onto on of the walkways connecting it to the other towers, taking a few practice swings with Oblivion.

He felt a little slower then usual, but that was something a few days of training would remedy that.

Considering that he was without a physical body of his own for over a month, that was good news. It could have been a lot worse.

Still it was more then enough for him to be able to handle Guiche.

Roxas walked down the hall for a little bit more before exciting the courtyard to see a bunch of groaning students using spades to take care of the ground Guiche had tried to use to bury Siesta. With Professor Colbert looking over them a few members of the schools servants

"You are all almost done here, a few minutes more and then you are all free to do as you wish." Colbert encouraged the students, getting the nobles to groan out even louder in protest.

And the members of the schools's servants to smile as the watched as the nobles were doing hard labor for once.

Roxas took a few steps before he felt Louise's presence run up from behind him.

Looks like he wasn't able to shake her off after all.

"There you are familiar!" Louise shouted from behind, getting him to turn around to see that she was a little short on breath. "Where were you?"

"Getting ready for the duel after comforting Siesta." Roxas said with a shrug.

"And what is your relationship with that maid?!" Louise demand haughty, a hundred different scenarios running threw her head. Most of them ending with her familiar trying to get with the maid." Why go through the trouble of dueling a noble just to save a commoner maid!"

"Siesta." Roxas said firmly, a small frown marring his face at Louise's tone.

"Pardon?" Louise asked agitatedly.

"Here name is Siesta, not maid nor commoner." Roxas said firmly. "So can you please refer to her as such?"

"Fine!" Louise growled out, in her mind her suspicions were close to being being confirmed. "Then why would you be willing to go through dueling Guiche for a commoner maid like Siesta then!"

"It is because she is my friend, the only one that I know of to still be alive!" Roxas snapped at Louise, annoyed with her attitude and causing the girl to flinch. "She is the first person to have generally treated me kindly in a long time, and for that I consider her my friend. So if anyone dares to mess with her, like Guiche has I will make sure that they would regret it. After all wouldn't you do the same for your friends?"

Louise stood there gobsmacked for a minute or two, before she started to fume.

How dare her familiar talk to her like that!

No one talks to her like that and gets away with it!

Minus her mother of course, she was smart enough not to tempt death after all!

Louise wanted oh so much just to punish her familiar. Just to beat some sense into him and show him his place!

But as much as she hated to admit it…he was right, at least about his last words!

And she was wrong!

He familiar wasn't helping out the maid in order to bed that cow!

No matter how she felt about it, or how unfair it was! Seriously with nobles she could more or less understand being blessed due to their bloodlines, but a commoner! By the founder it was just plain unfair!

No, her familiar was helping her because she was the only person alive that he considered a friend. The same way she had Henrietta.

Hell if their situation was reversed and Guiche would have done something absolutely stupid like that to Henrietta, well she would make absolutely sure that no one would never be able to find his body once she was done with him.

And if Roxas was directly that kind of fury towards Guiche…well as she hated to admitted there was a possibility she might witness his death unless her familiar would be having mercy on his poor, unfortunate soul.

"Louise are you alright?" Roxas asked while he approached her.

She had been silent form about a minute now, a complete contrast from how he has known her so far.

While the Nobody was annoyed at her just up and shouting at him about Siesta, it didn't mean he could just ignore her if something is wrong. Otherwise there was a chance she should shout at him for not being considerate to her.

It might be a bit pessimistic to think like that, but his interactions with Louise so far haven't proved him wrong otherwise.

It took a Louise a minute to comprehend what Roxas was asking and for her to realize that he was approaching her.

"I'm fine!" Louise shouted, her face aflame in embarrassment as she took a step or two back from being caught being lost in thought like this.

"Alright then." Roxas said backing off, figuring that if she could still should like that she would be alright.

Louise took a deep breath in order to compose herself.

"Normally I would have you go apologize to Guiche for even accepting this duel!" Louise snapped out before letting out a sigh. "But I suppose that you will not do so, for what he did to that maid."

"I would not." Roxas said, his tone showing that their was no room for arguments there.

"Then I will only say this once familiar, beat him. If the maid means that much to you as a friend, just beat him for her honor. That and my own, can't have my familiar lose and bring dishonor to me. Especially against that pathetic excuse of a womanizer!" Louise declared, her tone changing to a haughty one at the end.

Roxas after hearing that let out a little smile.

Although it seemed like most of her motives were self centered, he could clearly hear a slight change in tone with her talking about in Siesta. That she at some level at least understood why he was doing this. He figured that if he hadn't said anything, she probably would have told him just to surrender to Guiche along with Siesta.

Soothing the Nobody would not allow.

Maybe there was some hope for a partnership between the two of them, without her shouting at him all the time. Too soon to tell maybe, but this was at least a decent start.

"Believe me I plan on it." Roxas said simply, getting Louise to nod.

"Good now one more thing, talk back to me like that again and I will find a way to make you regret it." Louise warned with a frown.

She would have normally not let her familiar talk back to her like that, but considering that he was the only thing keeping her from being expelled from the academy and that the headmaster might notice if she tried anything.

So Louise supposed that as long as her familiar didn't leave and she got to see that perverted, womanizing dog Guiche be taken down a peg then she would will be willing to overlook her familiar's slight against her just this once.

And also not because she could understand his desire to defend the maid, not at all.

Roxas could only sigh at that, seems like they were still at quite a rocky start.

But at least it was a start after all.

Before the Nobody could speak up to Louise about it, he sensed Professor Colbert approach the two of them from behind. Getting Louise to freeze at the sight of him.

"It is good to see that your is punctual, unlike yourself Miss Vallière. I expected you to have been back here 20 minutes ago. I had to send Mr. Grandple to find you and he hasn't shown arrived back either.

So for what reason are you late and have you seen Mr. Grandple anywhere?" Colbert said sternly, getting Louise to flinch.

"W-well it was Guiche's fault for being so hard to find after the duel and finding my familiar! The headmaster can support my with the later!" Louise said, going from stuttering to shouting out.

"I see." Colbert said before turning to Roxas. "Is she telling the truth?"

"She is, Louise was looking for me and caught up to me right after I was done preparing for the duel." Roxas said, as it was technically true. That and not doing so would probably get her to start shouting at him later, which would be annoying.

"I see." Colbert said while nodding before turning to Louise. "Still Miss Vallière, my second question has gone unanswered. Have you seen Mr. Grandple?"

"I thought I saw him trying to sneak into the kitchens after I couldn't find my familiar there. Mutter about how easy it was to do so under that fool of a professor. His words not mine" Louise said, her tone containing slight disdane.

Well she did pass him looking for Nobody, she didn't see him around the kitchen. Though he did mutter out loud about sneaking down there later and his comment against Professor Colbert, one of the few staff who believed in her. Considering the way he usually calls her a Zero, that comment against Colbert, that there were several witnesses, and the fact he was pretty much a pervert that Louise was more then willing to throw that fat pig towards him.

"Really now, a fool of a professor I am. Mr. Grandple deserves a lesson in respect it seems." Colbert said sternly before turning to the group of exhausted mages , who have just finished fixing up the damaged court. "Whoever brings me Mr. Grandple and tells him he will be serving detention for the next 2 weeks and making sure my classroom is spotless will receive extra marks on their assignments under me for the next week, no matter the grade. Remember to bring him to Vestri Court."

At that most of the mages gained a second wind and took off. Extra grades and a target to possibly exercise some of their frustration on from having to fix the ground, it was too good of a chance to pass up.

Roxas had to admit, he was impressed at how Colbert was handling this insubordination. If it was Xemnas, Xaldin, or Saïx it was either turned into a Dusk, impaled, they have Axel end your existence, or just kill you themselves.

Considering how well it worked out for them, half of the Organization was effectively nonexistent now and he had gone rouge.

Colbert though, he had put those nobles through their paces without resorting to the methods that the Organization used without even resorting to raising his voice. Then again he wasn't literally heartless like them or himself. He was a teacher to a bunch of prideful nobles and mages, so he suspected that he needed to do so in order to get them respect him.

The Nobody could respect it, as the man seemed to command respect from Louise as much as Osmond does.

"As for you Miss Vallière, I will have to ask you to come with me so we can have a short discussion about your tardiness and I will consider this a warning. Just know that you will be receiving an evenings detention with me if this happens again. Are we clear Miss Vallière?" Colbert said sternly, getting Louis to nod shakily.

"Of course professor." Louise said, internally sighing in relief as she was not getting off easily. While also internally raging that if her familiar probably hadn't said anything she probably be serving in detention.

"Now then Roxas was it?" Colbert asked, getting the Nobody to nod. "Well Roxas follows Mrs. Vallière and I and you will be at Vestri Court, the duel beginning in a few minutes. In the meanwhile Mrs. Vallière, we are going to have our discussion right now." Colbert said giving Louis a stern look, getting the noble to gain a resigned look before she walked up towards the professor.

Who started to calmly lay into her tardiness as the two walked off to Vestri Court, getting Roxas to quietly take some mental notes off of him. Figuring it was probably a good idea to do so incase Louise snaps at him again.

The Nobody took a few steps behind them before he sensed someone approaching behind him, getting him to smile.

"You have arrived just in time Siesta." Roxas said as the maid approached from behind him.

"Of course, you asked me to keep an eye on you." Siesta said with a small smile. She was still feeling uncertain about the amount of faith Roxas had placed in her for this and hoping that it wouldn't come to pass.

Yet at least she would go through with it, as he had placed that much faith in her as a friend and she would do so.

"I wouldn't have anyone else to do so." Roxas said as the two walked along with each other towards the court.

Louise noticed this and started to frown, before shaking those thoughts off.

The maid was nothing more then a friend to her familiar, that and it was below her to get jealous.

Especially of her cow like figure. Not at all.

Besides it wouldn't really matter if her familiar won the duel.

It would the first step to she everyone that she wasn't a Zero!

* * *

A few minutes later Vestri Court was packed with students of all years, all eager to see the duel.

After all, it wasn't every day a noble duels a commoner and for a good number of mages in the crowd it showed the later their true place in the world.

Beneath them.

But for the rest, it was to see how Louise's familiar would fare against Guiche. Some to see if Louise had failed again by summoning him, some curious to see Guiche being taken down a peg, and some wanting either one of them to lose for Colbert making them fix the courtyard without magic,

Basically the crowd was eager to see what would go down as most of their eyes where on Roxas who was taking a few practice swings with Oblivion while Guiche was doing waving his rose elegantly while making a speech about the superiority of nobles, all the while fixing a barely hidden glare at the Nobody.

At least most of them anyway, as a few eyes were fixated elsewhere.

More specifically the redhead stretching herself along the back wall.

"This will be an entertaining match, don't you think Tabitha?" Kirche asked her friend.

Tabitha did not respond, only lifting her eyes from the book she was reading a little.

Siesta was towards the back of the crowd nearby Professor Colbert who had just finished Malicorne quit the verbose tounge lashing for his disobedience. She was quite worried how this will turn out and hoped that she would not go through with what her new friend had asked her to do.

Louis stood there at the side of the crowd, waiting to see what would happen before reacting. While internally hoping her familiar would win and show everyone that they were wrong about her.

Roxas was just focused on one thing and one thing only, making Guiche pay.

For Guiche however it was the exact same reason, mixed in with anger.

He had been slapped by Montmorency and then told by Louise what was going to happen to him after the duel.

Safe to say his parents were going to be displeased and mostly going to cut off his allowance for a few months once the letter arrived. And visiting the over the hold was not going to be a pleasant experience. Especially once his eldest brother and his harpy of a wife heard this, the two of them always looking for ways to mock him.

All because of the familiar rescuing the maid,

The only way he knew right now was to defend his honor and showing the familiar his rightful place.

That way he at least knew that if his father heard about this, the punishment would be less severe.

So while he would win due to being a noble against a magicless commoner, he wasn't going to leave this to chance.

No he was going to take a page or two out of his father's personal book of tactics in order to guaranteed victory if it comes down to it.

Guiche finished his speech and saw that the Nobody hadn't even been listening at all, infuriating him.

He was going to enjoy smashing this familiar into the dirt where he belonged.

"Familiar I will praise you for not running away." Guiche said with a flip of his cape and a wave of his rose.

"Well no one would want to run away from a windbag like yourself." Roxas said, hoping to irritate Guiche for wasting their time with that long winded speech of his.

Some of the nobles were thinking of what sacrilege the familiar used against a noble like Guiche. Others thought it was a little funny and starting to laugh, having the desired effect on Guiche.

Now he really wanted to show the familiar his place, but honor and fear compelled him to make one more option.

"Louise I would offer this to your familiar, but considering how he has slighted me I instead make this to you. Call off your familiar and tell him to surrender and apologize to me. On his knees, face to the ground like the commoner he is. Then I will forgive him call off this duel. I am sure you do not wish to see your familiar be beaten to a pulp after just getting one." Guiche said haughtily yet honestly.

He had to thank the Founder his father had taught him not to cross what as potentially the scariest woman in the Halkeginia.

So he was wise enough to not insult her youngest daughter and treating her with respect despite seemingly being borderline magicless until yesterday. As well as trying to hit on here despite thinking that she was a beautiful woman in her own way just like the rest.

That and she was already engaged to a respectable noble, he held some standards after all.

Still the thought that the woman who could turn his battle hardened father into a sobbing wreck at the thought of her enraged as a potential mother in law terrified him!

So as much as he wished to deal with this commoner, let it not be said that he didn't try to end things peacefully with Louise and risk anything happening to him or his house.

After all four students played a particularly nasty trick on Louise last year and when this one started all were never to return to school, one of them have their whole family being arrested for treason with substantial evidence.

He was smart enough to figure out what happened and who was responsible, but the teasing and mockery continued undeterred. Yet no one before or after committee anything as close to that incident again.

It was next to impossible to happen, but he was not willing to risk.

Louise had a conflicted look on his face, before remembering what the headmaster said before speaking.

"Normally I would agree with you Guiche, but this time I will have to ask you to surrender. There is no way I believe that you can defeat my familiar as you would only be humiliated. But I will permit you to be as rough a necessary with my familiar in order to beat some of the rebellious out of him. That is if you don't surrender that is." Louise said haughty, getting some of the nearby nobles to laugh at her and Roxas to sigh.

He should have expect Louise to have said something like that.

Still at least she admitted that she had faith in him

"Well this has gotten interesting, do you think Louise's faith in her familiar is warranted? I mean he is handsome and possibly strong for a comment if he can wield that sword easily enough. Still do you think that is enough?" Kirche asked Tabitha.

She continued to read for a few moments before looking up.

"Yes." Was all she said before going back to her reading.

"Really then this should be a match to watch then." Kirche said with a grin, ready to see how this was all going to go down.

Guiche meanwhile was not expecting that kind of responses, but he was glad to.

He could go through with showing her familiar his place then.

"Well then if that is what your master has to say then prepare to be defeated. But as I am honorable I with give you to say some final words before we start." Guiche said with a swish of his hair, secretly picking of a few rose petals and stuffing them in his pocket.

Better to prepared after all.

"If you say that then I have one thing to say. Surrender and apologize to Siesta for nearly burry her for your mistake and I will a end this duel." Roxas said, half expecting Guiche to actually surrender.

Only for the mage to let out a slight, haughty laugh along with quite a number of nobles at that and getting the Nobody to tighten his grip on Oblivion. The Keyblade hummer along as they both seemed to agree on the same thing.

They would make him truly regret what he did.

"A noble apologizing to a commoner, preposterous." Guiche said, getting a majority of the crowd to nod in agreement.

Including Louise, although she did so subtly as for her familiar not to not.

Which Roxas did and frowned at that.

There was still a lot of work needed to be done before he could safely say they could be partners.

"Well if those are your last words, then it is time to begin this duel." Guiche said with flick of his rose.

"I couldn't agree more." Roxas said, getting into his stance.

The duel had begun.

* * *

Roxas rushed at Guiche, intending to finish this here and now.

However the mage smirked an with a quick flex of his rose, a petal cake lose and touched down upon the ground.

It erupted into a pillar of light and when it died down there was a feminine looking golem made out metal, a spear clutched in it's fist. The golem used its spear to block Roxas's attack and pushed him back a bit.

"Did you really think that I would fight you up close, that is for commoners." Guiche said with a sneer. "No this is how a noble fights, using what the Founder Brimir has blessed us millennia ago. You can never match my lovely bronze Valkyrie. She is the harbinger of the punishment you rightfully deserve for ever thinking of standing up against a noble such as myself."

Among the crowd of nobles, most where certain Guiche would win. After all while he was a simple dot mage, his expertise with metal work was nothing to laugh at as it was a more advanced branch of earth magic.

So they were certain that Guiche would win and show this upstart familiar his place.

For Roxas though, it just solidified that Guiche was pathetic.

He was fighting behind a golem, something the Nobody would admit would be a valid strategy from all his missions with Demyx. But unlike him, Guiche looked like he couldn't even fight his way out of a wet paper bag.

As for his so called Valkyrie, while it looked like it was about as strong as a Shadow there was a major flaw to it's design.

Roxas took a swing with Oblivion, the edge connecting with the Valkyrie's midsection. With a little more force to his swing the golem was bisected and began to break into pieces.

It's flaws was that it's sides weren't as armored as the rest of it.

The spear dropped down to the ground, brushing past his left hand.

Suddenly Roxas felt something flare inside his body and he felt his instincts take over. In the blink of an eye the Nobody grabbed the spear, twirled it in his hand, and threw it towards Guiche's feet.

Who squared like a frightened baby when it embedded itself into the ground and forced him back.

Roxas would have used a little girl for the comparison, but that would be insulting the girl to do so.

The Nobody was surprised for a quick second, before pushing it down.

Whatever that feeling was he could focus on it later, for now though he had more important matters with the duel.

He still needed to make Guiche pay after all.

Most of the mages were shocked, seeing a commoner ripping through Guiche's Valkyrie like it was nothing. It was unheard of for a commoner to do something like this to a noble. They were expecting for the familiar to either be in pain or unconscious. Instead the familiar hadn't even suffered the most minute of scratches and was still standing tall.

Siesta sighed in relief as it looked like things were going to be alright.

Louise was doing the same, though it was for the fact that the Headmaster had been right about he familiar and she hadn't been a fool and misplaced her faith in him like she initially did.

Kirche and Tabitha were still observing the duel from their spot on the wall, the former now wearing a grin at seeing how things were playing out.

Colbert though he was keeping an extra eye on Roxas. He noticed that slight moment of confusion, the faint glow of his ruins when he held that spear, and his moments when wielding his strange sword. It seemed that as thought that Roxas was an expert at the blade, but probably had never held a spear in his life.

Add in the way he had thrown it at Mister Gramont was that of an expert. He had experienced enough javelins being thrown at him to correctly identify if someone has had at least a degree of mastery and Roxas had just matched them superbly.

A possible sign of the true power of Gandálfr perhaps?

Though for Guiche he felt his confidence waiver significantly.

The familiar was much stronger then he anticipated, he had thought it was going to be an easy victory with him being a commoner and all.

He might have underestimated the familiar perhaps, but being over prepared for dealing with him remained to be seen.

If Verdante could finish the preparations on time that is.

He noticed that the crowd of mages were staying at him expectedly and made a dramatic flip of his hair in order to compose himself.

"I underestimated you familiar, something that I will make sure won't happen again!" Guiche declaimed with the wave of his rose, six petals floating down onto the ground and spring up into six Valkyries all lined up in two rows.

Roxas wasn't impressed, Demyx could summon dozens more in that same amount of time and he was pretty sure his water clones could easily destroy Guiche's little toys.

This was going to be easy.

"Are you getting nervous familiar, well you should be. This is the true power of a noble, I can have an entire army at my disposal, while you fight alone. With this magic there is no way that you could ever defeat-" Guiche's speech was cut off as he let out another high pitch squeal as he dove for cover from Oblivion, which Roxas had thrown just to shut him up.

The Keyblade passed back over the scared mage and tore through two of Guiche's Valkyries before Roxas caught it, a small smirk on his face at Guiche's reaction.

Something which infuriated the dot mage and got him to stand up in an enraged huff.

"You think that is funny familiar! Well I will show you how wrong you are when I show everyone here your true place, that you are lucky to exist at all when compared the prestige of a noble!" Guiche declaimed angrily, getting a few cheers from some nobles before being silenced by a stern glance from Colbert.

Roxas paused as he processed those words, before gripping Oblivion tightly. The Keyblade vibrating angrily at the remark.

He hated being reminded of that. That as a Nobody he didn't deserve to exist. Similar to the words being spoken to by DiZ.

He was going to make sure Guiche regretted those words.

The light began to darken around the court for a few seconds before returning normal, getting quite a few looks of confusion from most of the crowd as there wasn't a cloud in the sky to have done something like this.

As Guiche was looking on in confusion as well, he and the rest of the crowd was brought back into reality as by the sound of metal being torn apart. Roxas tore through two of the Valkyries, with a cold look in his eyes. One directed at the dot mage.

One that immediately sent a sort of primordial fear within Guiche as we waved his rose for his Valkyries pulled back to him.

It did nothing as Roxas as he shot towards them and sliced the other two apart without even trying. Roxas then turned his attention towards Guiche and rushed towards the dot mage.

Guiche silently prayed to the Founder that Verdandi would turn up soon, as it was becoming clear that he wouldn't win this without his back up plan.

Which enraged him a little that he could not win against this familiar, but it was quickly replaced by fear as the look Roxas was giving him terrified him!

One of unfeeling rage, directed solely at Guiche.

Roxas was about to strike him when Guiche threw the rose petals he had save in a last ditch effort to slow him down.

Roxas saw the fluttering petals and backed up a few steps as he had seen Marluxia doing a similar trick before unleashing a surprise attack.

The Nobody was partially right as with a wave of his rose, the petals changed into caltrops that instantly fell to the ground. With one of them nicking Roxas in the arm on the way down.

Guiche began to panic as he was nearly out of options and that he was sure that the familiar was certainly going to kill him with that same terrifying look in his eyes.

That was until he noticed Verdandi pop his head out of the ground, getting confusion from most of the crowd. Wondering why Guiche's familiar was even there.

But for the dot mage, it was as if Founder Brimir had come back from the dead.

This was his chance to win!

Roxas rushed at Guiche, intending to end this.

But Guiche with a dramatic flip of his cape and hair swung his rose down to the ground.

"Remember this familiar, as this is the fate of all commoners who over step their bounds!" Guiche declared as the rose touched the ground.

A circle of light appeared on the ground around Roxas, he tried to pull back but it was too late.

Metal spires rose from the ground quickly meeting and bending into the middle. Quickly coming together until forming a metallic tomb with the Nobody inside. One resembling, a warped rose bud.

As Guiche collapsed onto the ground, most of the crowd stared in shock with Colbert frowning, never expecting Mister Gramont to use one of his father's spells.

Especially the Iron Rose.

A spell that required time and preparation in order to set up, but when it did it could capture at most a dozen soldiers. Though it was much smaller, was crudely welded together, and seemed to have nearly wiped Guiche out of his magic.

Still the fact that he managed to cast it at all while still a dot mage was still impressive and showed off his potential.

Now if only he would spend more of his time studying then chasing around the academy's maids…

For Louise and Siesta they were both shocked.

For Louise it was seeing her familiar was possibly going to lose after handling Guiche so easily.

For Siesta, it was shock and horror.

Roxas was fighting in the first place after rescuing her from being buried alive and now he had suffered the same fate, except of a tomb of earth it was a tomb of cold steel.

Tears began to stream from her eyes of the thought of being trapped back in that tomb and of her friend experiencing the same thing all for her sake.

Guiche straightened himself out and used what little remained of his magic to summon two Valkyries to support himself back up.

He hated that he had to use his father's spell, but the familiar was too strong otherwise.

He hated to admit it, but it was true. Without Verdandi laying out the rose petals underground, he would have lost.

"I will admit familiar that you are strong, for a commoner that is." Guiche said bitterly. "But this is where it ends, right where this whole mess began. With a commoner being given their just punishment, perhaps I was a bit too harsh with the maid, but for you familiar you deserve this." He practically spat out the last verse. "With this there is no escape unless I allow it or any airflow, it is only a matter of time til I win and prove that us nobles are su-"

Guiche was cut off from his monologue as Oblivion burst forth from Roxas's metallic prison, the color from his face draining and his expression turning into one of horror.

"Impossible." Guiche said as he took a few steps back as Oblivion was pulled back before reappearing and taking a larger chunk of the metal off.

It disappeared one last time before making a hole big enough for Roxas to fit through.

"This can not be happening!" Guiche declared as Roxas stepped out of the construct, looking none the worst for ware.

A good portion of the mages were just as surprised as he was, the other's not so much. Well that feat was impressive for a dot mage, compared to his Valkyries this was just a bit above them. If he put it into practice a bit more or was at least a line mage then they were sure things would have gone differently.

Louise was breathing a sigh of relief as it looked like her familiar was going to win with Siesta doing the same.

Except that relief wanted to turn to worry once she got a glimpse of Roxas's eyes.

They were cold and furious, a complete change from earlier in the duel.

She began to push through the crowd, hoping that she was only seeing things and hoping that what Roxas asked her to do wouldn't come to pass.

"No! No! No! No! No! Stay away!" Guiche said as he backed away from the approaching form of the familiar, no the unstoppable monster in human skin right in front of him!

Roxas tore through the last two Valkyries with ease, his near emotionless glare scaring Guiche with each step he took.

The Nobody vanished in a burst of speed, before reappearing and planting the blunt edge of Oblivion into Guiche's rib cage. The dot mage screamed out in pain as he flew into the air, before Roxas slammed Oblivion into his back and sent Guiche crashing into the ground.

Guiche groaned out in pain as he tried to crawl towards his rose, only for Roxas to stomp on it and twist his shoe on it. Grounding it into the dirt.

"I yield!" Guiche gasped out as he held his ribs in pain, seeing no way out of this situation. Roxas just trained Oblivion's tip at the dot mage's heart. "I said that I yield, you have to stop!"

"Siesta begged you not to bury her, but you still did so. So why should I care." Roxas said coldly, getting Guiche to pale.

"Because I am a noble and she is a commoner! She lacks magic, and the power and money my family posses!" Guiche said in fear, which only increased at the Nobody's uncaring face.

"I could care less about how rich or how influential your family is. As for the magic, the way you are cowering means that without your rose then you can not use magic. So you are nothing more then a commoner now. The same kind that you have been calling lowly and lucky to even exist at all. So what does that make you right now?" Roxas asked coldly, getting Guiche to grow even more fearful that he would actually die.

Roxas would have continued, but he felt a pair of arms wrap around him firmly.

"Roxas please stop, this is enough." Siesta said shakily, part of her relieved after figuring what her friend was trying to do and for stopping him from possibly going too far.

"Why should I, he was willing to bury you alive and not care about it no matter how much you begged him too." Roxas said, emotion starting to bleed back into his tone as he calmed down a bit.

"Because if you continue then you are no better then he is." Siesta said, pointing to the terrified form of Guiche.

Roxas looked between Guiche and Oblivion before sighing and lowering his Keyblade, Oblivion humming in a mixture of what the Nobody could figure was a strange mixture of relief and disappointment.

He had nearly lost it once again, just like with Riku. Roxas supposed that Siesta was right, he had completely destroyed Guiche and continuing to make him suffer would just prove Siesta's point and make himself no better then the dot mage himself no matter how much he wanted to make Guiche continue to hurt for what he said.

Besides the Nobody was sure that he wouldn't bother trying anything after having his whole perception of commoners come crashing down from being outclassed.

But there was one thing to do.

"Apologize to Siesta and I will put away my weapon." Roxas said coldly, the weapon vibrating in his hands.

"I am sorry! I swear on my life that I will never harm the maid ever again!" Guiche shouted honestly, too terrified to even resist the Nobody.

Roxas nodded as he figured that he had at least learned his lesson and put away Oblivion. Still what he had irked the Nobody and he didn't trust himself to be around Guiche for a bit.

So Roxas separates himself from Siesta before giving her an apologetic look before fixing the defeated mage a glare that made him back off.

"If you ever threaten someone I care about again, there will be nothing to stop me from continuing." Roxas said before walking off. "Same goes for about saying that someone is lucky to exist at all."

The Nobody said as he walked away and towards the crowd, which parted away from him either scared or curious of what Louise's familiar could do after soundly defeating a mage like that despite being a commoner.

"Familiar where do you think that you are going!" Louise shouted as Roxas left.

She might be feeling proud that her familiar managed to defeat a mage without a scratch, even if it was just a dot mage. But the fact here familiar was leaving instead of getting the accolades he deserves and for herself for having such a powerful familiar puzzled and frustrated her.

"I need sometime to myself, I will be back later." Roxas said simply, wishing to cool off as he was still tempted to beat Guiche into the ground for that sole comment.

As he walked back into the academy, Louise chased after him in a huff. Annoyed at being talked to like that, she rushed after him.

Only to find that her familiar had disappeared once again.

While Louise was wondering how her familiar kept doing that, in the court as the crowd talk amongst themselves Guiche got to his knees, petting his familiar as he composed himself.

"You did well Verdandi." He said honestly, getting the giant mole to rub itself against the mage's hand happily.

While Guiche began to think of the duel, past the pain in his ribs and the lingering fear he wondered how could of he have been so blind.

He had been blind to the fact that a commoner could have no possibility of beating a mage. Only to have been soundly beaten by one.

Blind for thinking that magic could easily overwhelm a commoner. Only for the familiar to overpower his Valkyries like they were tin soldiers and break through his strongest spell without looking the worst for ware.

Blind for thinking that there was no way a lowly commoner could ever compare to him. Only to end up being unable to use magic until he can acquire a new rose, basically a commoner in all but name similar to Louise.

Blind for thinking that he could justify his treatment of the maid for his own mistake. Only for him to reduced to the same position that she once was. On the ground and terrified that he might die.

"Lord Guiche, are you alright?" Siesta asked him, getting Guiche to look at the maid in surprise.

Instead of either hatred or loathing like he figured that the maid would hold for…his mistake…the maid instead wore an expression of kindness and concern.

This was something that he never expected.

"I'm alright maid." Guiche said neutrally, his tone portraying no emotion. "Thank you for your concern, but I am alright. A trip to the infirmary and I shall be alright."

"Physically you might be, but you have some thinking to do. Some of which will be with me over the next two weeks in detention." Colbert said as he walked up to the two. "Siesta can you please leave us?"

"Of course Professor Colbert." Siesta said with a bow and made to take her leave.

She gave Guiche a small nod as she passed before she walked past the dispersing crowd of mages.

"I believe that we should head towards the infirmary as your were saying mister Gramont, it might be a good idea to get your ribs checked out. I can tell you from experience that it would be better to treat them now then to suffer the consequences later." Colbert said as he began to walk with Guiche towards the infirmary, the later doing a dramatic flip of his cape.

Hiding a wince as he did so.

"I will have to take your word for it professor." Guiche said with a wince.

"Better here then in a war zone, out there your opponent will not care if are still alive and breathing at the end of a fight. No matter if they are a commoner like Roxas or a noble like yourself." Colbert sighed out. "You need to do some serious thinking mister Gramont and to learn to broaden your horizons. Thinking that miss Vallière's familiar was a simple commoner was a major mistake. Your arrogance blinded you and it costed you this duel despite your best efforts. On the battlefield a properly trained commoner solider can be as dangerous as mage. I hope that you at least leaned that."

"I have professor, and maybe much more then that…" Guiche said, trailing off at the end.

Between the detention, being all but destroyed by the familiar, being reduced to a state similar to a commoner, and the maid showing him kindness when he didn't deserve it will give him a lot to think about.

"That is what I was hoping for mister Gramont, you have a great potential within you and I hope this experience helps you realize it." Colbert said, getting Guiche to nod as the two entered the academy along with the rest of the mages.

All except for two.

"Who knew that Louise's familiar was so powerful for a commoner." Kirche said with a seductive smirk.

Sure there were plenty of commoners back in Germania that could stand up to a dot mage, but to replicate such a feat as he did without a single scratch. Very few could do so and they were mainly old and battle hardened soldiers, while Roxas was both young and handsome.

He is going to be quite the interesting challenge to bring under her thrall.

"Strong." Was all Tabitha said as she continued to read.

Though her thoughts were one determining if Roxas was deliberately not using magic against Guiche or not during their match.

She knew that he was a mage as she saw him create a gust of wind to trip Guiche up earlier, using his key like sword as a focus. She doubted anyone else noticed as the usage of his spell was brief and subtle.

Still Roxas managed to defeat Guiche without using any magic, only using his physical strength and even that was stronger then any commoner she had ever seen. But she had also seen his sword vibrate several times during their fight, more specifically whenever Guiche tried his best to insult him.

So perhaps the weapon was granting him that kind of strength while doubling as a focus?

Tabitha decided to ask the familiar about it himself and see what she could gleam off of him.

After another chapter or two of course.

* * *

Roxas sighed as he watched the sunset, finally calming down.

He supposed that maybe he was overreacting a bit when he had to leave. Sure he was still plenty upset about what Guiche had said, he needed to unwind a bit and he doubt Louise shouting at him would help with that.

Still it irritated him that if Guiche could spot such things about those he considered beneath him and he was just a teenager, the Nobody dreaded meeting any adult nobles outside of the academy if a majority of them acted in a similar manner.

What Siesta had told him about the world didn't help with his opinion as well.

But the Nobody supposed he would save his judgement for when he actually encountered another nobles, at least outside of the academy.

At least here the students had the professors to discipline them if they were acting up. Not all the time perhaps, but they were at least seemed to be kept in line most of the time. But outside of the academy, was where the nobles of Tristian ruled they didn't really had anyone to reign them in. Except for the royal family from what he was told.

Yet despite all of that Roxas could care less at the moment as he was the one thing he had sorely missed his entire time within Sora.

The sunset.

He had never been able to truly enjoy the sunset since a few days before leaving the Organization. Since then he had been trapped within DiZ's accursed virtual prison and he had been unconscious yesterday.

But now he was here, feeling the warmth of the sun on his skin and enjoying the sight of all the colors on the horizon.

Roxas had missed the sight.

It was the only thing in his short existence that he could remember all that fondly. Just sitting up on the clock tower eating sea salt ice cream with Axel.

Which reminded him to possibly invent sea salt ice cream if this world didn't have it. He had eaten so much of it that the Nobody had remembered the taste exactly, so much so that he could confidently rebuilt it from scratch if he had too.

Roxas was sure that he could make sea salt ice cream that would impress both Axel and-.

He clutched his head in pain as a series of images suddenly flooded through it and Oblivion began to vibrate in his bag. The images were all the same. Him and Axel enjoying ice cream on the clock tower.

Except that every single memory had something new with it.

A figure in the Organization's cloak with their hood up, enjoying ice cream with them.

Then just as quickly as they appeared, the flood of memories stopped.

Roxas quickly pulled out Oblivion and saw that the Keyblade was vibrating slowly, picking up the feeling of what the Nobody could guess was sadness.

He remembered his talk with the presences and how one was supposedly connected to him and had been forgotten. Add in the fact he suspect Xemnas tampered with his memories he came up with one theory.

There had to be someone else besides Axel that Roxas considered a friend.

Whoever they were Xemnas tried his hardest to erase their memories from him, possibly after killing whoever it was.

He had succeeded…until now.

"Next time I meet Xemnas I am going to kill him myself, if Sora doesn't beat me to it first." Roxas sighed out angrily, setting down the Keyblade down next to him on the tower's roof.

While Xemnas had succeeded, it was only briefly.

One of the precenses was once someone he considered a friend, wiped from existence and memory by Xemnas. Whatever caused the Nobody to be dragged into this world had also brought them back inside of him, if only as a fragmented presence.

But it seemed like they were picking up the pieces and they will piece together what happened.

As for Xemnas…sad as it was to say it he probably wasn't strong enough to confront him yet. He had only just come back into existence after all and Xemnas was the leader of the Organization for a reason. So it would probably be in the best interest to wait on this world and wait for Sora to clean house with the Organization.

That way Xemnas would be at his weakest if there was no Organization to back him up if he needed it.

Still there was a little issue to take care off before that could happen.

Roxas looked around on the tower before drawing releasing a small pulse of nothingness from his hand.

A few moments later a small Corridor of Darkness opened and out stepped a Samurai. It's form portrayed surprise that it's liege was alive before bowing.

Roxas smiles as it was good to see that at least some of the Samurai were under his command, even if he wasn't a member of the Organization.

"There is no need for that." Roxas said, getting the lesser Nobody to shake it's head. Preferring to still bow in presence of it's liege. "Or you could keep bowing, whatever you prefer. Now I have a mission for you."

The Samurai nodded it's head, ready for anything that it's liege was going to ask.

"I want you to keep an eye on The World That Never Was. Keep an eye on anyone that enters it that isn't a member of the Organization. If that person is Sora, come and get me. That is all, head back and continue to act normal. Just do not inform anyone else that I am still alive, is that clear?" Roxas asked, getting the Samurai to nod before it vanished.

The Nobody letting out a sigh of relief, having been half expecting the Samurai to have attacked him on sight or get more to back itself up.

Still while he had successfully summoned a Samurai, it was probably for the best that didn't summon any other Nobodies unless he needed he needed to.

The Organization wouldn't mind a single Samurai disappearing for a minute, but multiple Nobodies and no explanation on where they were. They would investigate and find him here.

So Roxas would not allow that to happen.

Besides he now had a link to when Sora would come after Xemnas, giving Roxas the best chance to get the jump on him when the leader of Organization would least expect it.

But he would only do that when it came time draw his old life to a close.

He was determined to make a new start in this world after all, so that is what he would do.

Live a new life here away from everything that had been troubling him.

Roxas was broken from his musings when he heard the sound of wingbeats, picking up Oblivion incase whatever it is was trying to attack him.

Until he sensed it's heart and lowered the Keyblade.

It was Slyphid and the dragon wasn't alone.

She landed on the tower and right behind Roxas, with Tabitha climbing off of her back. Staff in hand, but without the book the Nobody had always seen her with.

She sent a inquisitive glance towards Roxas, studying him up before speaking.

"Mage." Tabitha said, getting a Roxas to look confused for a second before figuring she must have seen what he did earlier with Guiche.

"Probably not in the terms you are used to but I do know how to use some magic, but I prefer to use it when the situation calls for it." Roxas said honestly, getting Tabitha to nod.

It also gave her the answer that she was looking for one of her questions.

He mainly fought with his key like sword, so he was probably a better swordsman and used magic in conjecture with his weapon if needed.

Just like most of the Gallia Knights.

It seemed like Guiche was not a strong enough opponent to force Roxas to use his magic, which to her calculations was at least a dot mage as she had only seen him used wind. However he was probably an expert or had a higher ranking due to how subtly he created it and how no one else seemed to notice.

So she can figure him not flaunting his status as a mage due to either a more commoner upbringing or as he said doesn't consider himself one similar to how most of known Halkeginnia views it.

There was one other she wished to know.

"Key?" She asked, pointing to Oblivion.

"Well it is a key, but it is called a Keyblade." Roxas said.

"Is it a swordwand?" Tabitha asked, surprising Roxas briefly before shaking it off.

"Never heard of a swordwand before, but that is one of the basic functions of a Keyblade." Roxas said truthfully, getting Tabitha to looked confused for a second.

"What is it then?" She asked, wondering if this Keyblade wasn't just a swordwand then what was it?

"Truthfully I don't really know all it's capabilities, what I do know is that it is a very powerful weapon and a giant key basically." Roxas said, his answer getting Tabitha's brow to furrow at the last part of his answer.

She couldn't tell if he was serious or not.

"Where did you get it?" Tabitha asked.

"I didn't find it, a Keyblade choses it's wielder." Roxas said.

"How?" She asked.

"Beats me, I have had one for as long as I can remember." Roxas said, getting Tabitha to be a little annoyed.

She was hoping for an answer that wasn't as lackluster. Also the fact whatever his Keyblade truly is was even more difficult to figure out why he was hiding that he was a mage.

"Who are you?" Tabitha asked, getting Roxas to smile at that.

"I am still trying to figure that out, but at the moment I am just a Nobody." Roxas said before sitting back down to watch the sunset.

Tabitha found herself annoyed at that answer. That answered all of her questions and none at all with as little details as possible. Still there was nothing she could really complain against as she did the exact same thing to anyone besides Kirche most of the time.

As Roxas was watching the sunset, Slyphid moved closer to the Nobody. His back lined up to her's and her head brushing against his arm. Figuring what the dragon want, Roxas scratched one of the ridges around her eyes and getting the dragon to purr underneath his touch.

Not a moment later Tabitha sat herself not that far away from him, leaning her back against her familiar. She had stopped asking questions and had seemed satisfied with her answered for now and had decided to enjoy the sunset.

Not that Roxas would complain, minus the lack of sea salt ice cream.

He had two companions to enjoy the sunset with. Even if he didn't consider them friends, though Slyphid seemed to think otherwise. He didn't mind and he was curious himself about Tabitha as she had one of if not the strongest heart he had sensed at the academy. That and she at least seemed more quiet and reserved then any other noble he had encountered so far.

Still it was just nice to enjoy this moment as for the first time in quite a while he could watch the sunset and not have to worry about what challenges would await the Nobody the next day.

* * *

It was after dark when Roxas left the roof of the tower and was walking through the hallways of the academy.

Tabitha had left him earlier when it came to dinner, offering a ride on Slyphid in order to get down from the tower. The Nobody declined as he wanted to enjoy the sunset to the fullest. Tabitha just nodded and with a sullen looking Slyphid flew back down to the ground.

It was when the sun had long disappeared over the horizon that Roxas returned inside the academy.

He just decided to walk through the hallways of the academy, deciding it would probably be a good idea to get a lay of the land, incase he needed to open a Corridor of Darkness anywhere. Especially if Louise start to act up.

"Familiar where were you!" Louise shouted from behind him as she ran up to him.

Like now.

The Nobody turned around and saw Louise standing behind him in a huff, hands on her hips.

"Watching the sunset." Roxas said honestly, having nothing to hide on that.

Louise studied him in order to make sure that he was telling the truth or not, which from his expression showed that he was and making Louise growled inwardly.

"Then why did you take so long!?" Louise growled out.

"It was the first one I got to actually see in forever." Roxas said irritably, stunning Louise.

She was temped to wipe out her wand and teach her rebellious familiar a lesson. Yet she restrained herself when she remembered how easily he defeated Guiche and how every chance she has tried to punish him today had been foiled by the Headmaster either one way or another.

Once again she was forced to swallow down her pride as she had to remember that her only chance of stay in the academy was her familiar.

Doesn't mean that was going to be give in though, he was here familiar and a commoner after all.

"Whatever, just make sure not to take too long again." Louise huffed out.

"Can't make any promises on that one, but I will at least try. Can't really miss dinner after all." Roxas said, getting Louise to silently seethe. But stopped figuring this was the best she was going to get out of her willful familiar.

Beside she had something that she had been waiting to ask him for a while now.

"Now then, how did you get to be so strong for a commoner? Was it that key like sword?" Louise asked, the fact a commoner could even be strong enough to rip through a bastardized version of the Iron Rose was completely foreign to her.

"I've been fighting all my life. While the Keyblade does help a little bit, it is just a little bit. The rest of it is just experience." Roxas said truthfully, getting Louise to think about it.

If what here familiar said was true then all that strength was from experience and while that Keyblade as he called it was magical, it did little to boost his overall strength.

Though given he was able to beat a dot mage like Guiche it was still a little surprising, as almost always a commoner loses when facing a mage so this was something that she wasn't used to. Yet her familiar claimed to have been fighting all his life then no wonder he was defeat.

Still if he had been fighting that long…then where was he from?

Her familiar was probably around here age if a bit younger. So that and along with the fact there had been no major conflict she was aware of in the last 15 years around Tristian minus the civil war in Albion.

So where could he be from then if he had to fight all of his life?

"Louise are you alright?" Roxas asked, noticing that she had been lost in thought for a bit once again.

His words had snapped her out of it, though causing her cheeks to turn red in embarrassment at being caught.

"I am fine!" Louise snapped before regaining her composure. "Anyway considering your victory over Guiche for that commoner maid I have something that I wish to say."

"And that is?" Roxas asked, curious on what the pinkette was going to say as it looked like she was gritting her teeth to speak.

Louise disliked what she was going to say next, but her familiar's victory over Guiche had already caused waves throughout the academy. And it had also given her something that she had been wishing her entire time in the academy for.

Respect.

Even if it was just a few students who did so and it was for having such a powerful familiar, it was the most respect she had gotten here and the first time among the majority of the students had treated her with at least the tiniest bit of respect like a fellow noble and not a Zero.

So she supposed that despite how willful her familiar was, whatever he was doing was working out for her. So a little comprise wouldn't be too harmful in the long run if he didn't leave her.

"You wished to have a compromise, considering that managed to defeat Guiche I am willing to reach one with you in the morning." Louise said with a huff. "Do not expect me to agree to all of your terms though."

Roxas once again sighed at that. At least she seemed to be a least willing to take the steps to improve their situation, but only on her terms.

She was certainly prideful, he would give her that.

Still she was willing to take the first steps, so that was at least a good sign.

"Wouldn't have expected anything less, I can agree with that. But I have to ask, is one of them an actual bed and not a mat of hay?" Roxas asked.

"That is out of the question." Louise said, she was not going to give him that one.

"All right then, good night Louise." Roxas said nonchalantly, before turning around and walking down the hallway much to Louise's shock.

"Were do you think you are going familiar!" Louise shouted.

"Going to sleep the same place I was last night, if you want to know then Professor Colbert does." Roxas said, pointing behind her and getting Louise to freeze.

"Professor?" Louise stuttered out as she turned around, only to see no one there. "Familiar you are going to pay-"

She was cut off as she turned around to see her familiar had disappeared once again.

"How does he keep doing that!?" Louise growled out before sighing and walking back to her room.

Her familiar would be back tomorrow morning and would give him a piece of her mind then as she was too tired to deal with him now.

Still how does he keep disappearing like that?

* * *

Roxas chuckled as he walked out of a Corridor of Darkness into another hallway.

The Nobody couldn't believe that it worked.

He knew that Louise was probably going to be upset about that tomorrow, but it was worth it.

Roxas looked around before he realized that he had opened a corridor to outside of the academy's kitchens. And from what he sensed Siesta was still inside as well.

Figuring that he would at least apologize to her for leaving without a word, he opened the doors and was unprepared for what he was expecting.

"Should have known that you would have turned up sooner or later. Siesta didn't see you during dinner time so she figured that you would turn up sooner or later." Marteau said, bring Roxas in to see a long table had been set up in the kitchen covered with food and tankards full of drinks with a majority of the kitchen staff seated. With Siesta near the end waving at the Nobody, which he returned.

"You arrived just in time too, food was about to go cold and we were about to eat without our guest of honor our Key." Marteau said, slinging an arm around Roxas and bringing him to the table.

"I'm what?" Roxas asked.

"Our Key, you defeated a noble with a key like sword to defend one of our own." Marteau said, getting Roxas to nod at that.

"Okay I can get that part, but what about me being a guest of honor?" Roxas asked.

"It is simple actually, you defeated that brat Guiche and taught him a lesson about messing with us commoners. For such a rare occasion we are going to celebrate and it wouldn't be quite complete without you now wouldn't it?" Marteau said as he lead Roxas to his seat right next to Siesta.

"I suppose your right." Roxas said before sitting next to Siesta and turning towards her. "Siesta I am-"

"It is alright Roxas, you were probably still upset about what Guiche said. I can understand, though you were gone for quite a while." Siesta said with a small smile.

"I was, though to be honest I spent most of the time watching the sunset. It was just a beautiful as the ones back where I came from.." Roxas sighed out.

"I see, do you wish to talk about it?" Siesta asked upon noticing his expression,

The Nobody thought about it before shrugging, see no reason why to at least hide a bit about Twilight Town.

"No problem, I have been meaning to ask Marteau about a recipe from where I came from anyway." Roxas said.

"And I would be glad to hear about it, but there is time for that after the feast begins." Marteau said from the head of the table before standing up.

"Now I can imagine that everyone is done waiting and just wishes to dig into the feast before us." He said, getting an uproar throughout the table about people who wanted to eat. All of it good natured. "But first I just wish to say a few things to our Key, Roxas."

The head chef picked up his tankard before speaking.

"Roxas you have done more for us this one day then what most would do for us commoners. You rescued and stood up for our dear Siesta, stood up for us commoners, and utterly destroyed that noble brat Guiche and showed him the error of his ways. You are one of the rare ones my boy, one of the few truly willing to stand up for us. Very few people can claim that even commoners, and you are one of them Roxas. If you need anything at all just let any of us know and we will help you anyway we can." Marteau said, getting everyone else to clamor in agreement.

This shocked Roxas.

He was not used to all of this. So many people actually willing to give him support all at once. It was a completely foreign experience to the Nobody.

"Roxas are you alright?" Siesta asked, noticing that he was going a little pale.

"I am alright, just not used to this many people acting like this around me." Roxas said, getting a sullen nod from Siesta.

"Well you better, because you are one of us now and we look after our own." Marteau said before raising his tankard, with everyone else doing so including Roxas and Siesta. "Let's give it up for Roxas, for our Key!"

"For your Key!" Everyone chorused before they toasted and started to get food from the table.

Roxas just looked at everyone getting their food while he took a sip of his tankard, which was filled with Aspen Milk.

Everyone around him talking with each other happily, swapping stories and laughing with each other. All the while enjoy a bountiful feast before them and not an ounce of negativity in sight. It was truly a curious sight for the Nobody, but he supposed it was a welcome change from his previous conditions with the Organization.

One that he would welcome with open arms…once got used to it off course.

Putting down his tankard, Roxas started to get his dinner.

All the while Siesta had a smile on her face at watching her new friend slowly but surely start to enjoy himself amongst everyone else at the table.

* * *

An hour later the table was cleared off with most of the kitchen staff already clearing out of the kitchen, some staying behind to clean up what was left including washing the dishes.

Only three people where left at the table, and they were all about to leave as well.

"Well this 'sea salt ice cream' as you call it sounds simple to make yet tricky to perfect. It sounds simpler to make then the sorbets which originated in Gallia and Romalia for nobles. A commoner's sorbet if I say so myself." Marteau said with a nod. "This sounds like a decent challenge to make, I will start tomorrow and you and Siesta will be the first ones to taste each batch until I have perfected it."

"Really?" Both Siesta and Roxas asked in amazement.

For Siesta it is the chance to try something that Roxas seemed to love with a passion from the way he spoke about it during dinner.

For Roxas, it was realizing that he might have just accidentally invented ice cream for this world.

"Really, this recipe sounds like an interesting challenge to make and as I said if you needed anything, all you needed to do was just ask. So consider this done." Marteau said, getting Roxas to nod with a smile.

"Thank you." Roxas said with a smile.

"Think nothing of it our Key." Marteau said as Roxas got up. "Heading off to bed already?"

"I do, have to deal with Louise in the morning." Roxas said, getting a nod of sympathy from the head chef.

"I hear you, get some rest and tomorrow I will have the first batch ready." Marteau said, getting the Nobody to nod.

"I will, good night." Roxas said before turning to Siesta.

He approached her and hugged her, much to Siesta's surprise.

"Thank you having my back." Roxas said as he broke the hug, getting Siesta's cheeks to dust red.

"It is no problem Roxas, you trusted me to do so as your friend and it is the least I could do for rescuing me earlier." Siesta said with a shiver, still haunted by what nearly happened.

"I know, but still it means a lot to me that you did so." Roxas said with a smile. "Good night Siesta, I will see you tomorrow."

"Goodnight Roxas, and I wish so too." Siesta said with a small smile as Roxas started to walk away.

Which started to fade bit by bit with every step he took towards the door.

"Go after him." Marteau said from behind Siesta, startling the maid. She turned around to see the man with a soft smile on his face, pointing towards Roxas. "If you just continue to sit here and watch him go, you will certainly regret it. Believe me, I know."

"A-Alright, I'll go." Siesta stuttered out, running after Roxas as he closed the doors. "Roxas wait!"

Roxas stopped himself from opening a Corridor of Darkness after hearing his friend call out to him. Siesta opened the door and closed it behind her, walking towards the Nobody with a blush on her face.

"Siesta what's wrong?" Roxas asked her as she continued to approach him.

She didn't say anything as she continued to approach him and eventually got into his personal space. Before he could even react, she pressed her lips against his cheek.

Roxas promptly turned red as a new emotion flowed through his very being and his entire body began to feel warm, especially around his face.

What was happening to him?

Siesta separated here self from him, her cheeks flushed scarlet.

"I never got to properly thank you for saving me Roxas, nobody else was willing to do anything. Except for you." Siesta said, her face aflame like Roxas. "Thank you for everything and goodnight Roxas."

Siesta promptly bolted back into the kitchen with Roxas doing the same except into a Corridor of Darkness.

He reappeared on the roof of the central tower, the color in his face dying down a bit.

"What is happening to me?" Roxas wondered out loud, wondering about what he was experiencing ever since Siesta…kissed him…

The same emotion came back at full force. Roxas swore off he had a heart right now, it would be beating like crazy at what he was experiencing.

This sensation was…dare if he had to admit it, was just like watching the sunset and eating sea salt ice cream with his friend to him.

It left him that kind of feeling to him, which was impossible given he couldn't really feel anything.

Could he?

Roxas decided to push the issue to that back of his mind for now. Otherwise he would never be able to fall asleep tonight.

With that out of the way Roxas opened up his journal and started to write in it underneath the light of the two moons. Trying his best to not think about the new sensation still coursing through him.

* * *

Later that night a cold breeze blew in from the mountains, causing the sleeping form of the Nobody to shiver in his sleep.

The sounds of wings flapping in the distance emerged as Slyphid flew up to the top of the tower, looking for her new friend.

She saw Roxas shivering and wondered why he would ever want to sleep on the cold, hard roof of the tower.

Seeing that he was still shivering, Slyphid lifted the sleeping form of Roxas gently in her claws before jumping off the roof. Using her wings to glide down to one of the courtyards. Where Roxas should be safe from the chilling wind.

She land onto the ground before wrapping herself into a circle, placing Roxas into the center.

Once she was sure that he was nice and warm, the dragon moved her head to underneath his arm and resting it comfortably on his body. Slyphid let out a soft growl as his hand brushed against on of her horns before falling asleep herself.

* * *

**The projector died down as the chapter ended and you see the author writing something on a whiteboard.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and I hope that you enjoyed this chapter and it was worth the wait. I promise the next chapter will come out much sooner then the last one. When though depends what I am working on at the time though.***

***Still as you can see there is a few things to discuss.***

***First off is the duel itself which I hope you all enjoyed. As you can tell that Guiche was more powerful then he was portrayed in canon at this point here and was pulling out all the stops here as their are two man reasons for that. First is that he is actually facing conseq****uences here, so he was mainly fighting here to protect his own honor a hope that at least he will get a lesser punishment from his family once they here about it. Secondly he is the fourth son of one of Tristian's top generals, so it would make sense that he at least learned a few things from him including the Iron Rose. An effective spell if given enough time and resources to prepare. Which with Guiche's current level wouldn't be able to bring out it's full level against Roxas.***

***If it did then Roxas would have probably needed to use both Keyblades or even magic to have escaped that.***

***While we are on the subject we also see that Roxas has taken it upon himself to think things through a little better. Considering rushing away from the Organization without a backup plan got him caught by Riku, it is probably a good choice to start working on that trait. Though if push comes to shove planning can go straight out the window. Still he is making an effort with trusting Siesta to helping him in case he got reckless and now has a link to the World That Never Was. Though how the later one will turn out remains to be seen.***

***Besides that Roxas has now gained the attention of the whole academy, unknowingly found a way to annoy Louise with the Corridor of Darkness, make at least get some progress with her, and is currently adjusting to his new surroundings and a few other things.***

***Anyway next chapter will be the last chapter for the prologue arc and after that the Mott arc begins. So thing will be more of a breather next chapter with Roxas adjusting to a few things, sea salt ice cream, and a mistake that Guiche made that will come back to bite him in the ass next chapter. How that will play out...well we will just have to wait and see.***

***I hope that you enjoy the chapter when it comes out.***

***Now normally I would end the chapter here...but there is two announcements that I need to make.***

***First off is the long awaited harem list and the least important of the two.***

***That's right, least important so you all might be wandering what can be more important then that.***

***A lot actually, like trying to explain to every annoyed Smash fan to stop being so hurt against Fire Emblem Three Houses. Don't have anything against it, but it is just a little immature.***

***But enough of that, let us get to the harem list shall we.***

**The author flips the white board to reveal all previous and new additions.**

**Previous**

**Siesta (main)**

**Xion**

**Louise **

**Kirche**

**Tabitha**

**Henrietta**

**Tiffania**

**And the new additions**

**Slyphid (keep forgetting how to correctly write her true name.)**

**One surprise.**

***For the surprise...well not going to say anything right now but she is going to surprise some.***

***Anyway still have a little room for suggestions, so if any send them my way and I will get back to you while I can.***

***Now onto the most important announcement.***

***The final one is that I have gotten permission from DrWriter21 to use their characters for this story months ago. Getting that kind of permission to use characters from A Heart in the Void, the very work that this is based on is highly important and I must once again thank them for this.***

***Anyway now is the time to end this story.***

***If you have any questions leave me a PM or a review and I will get back to you while I can.***

***So until next time, ciao!***

**The author waves goodbye as the screen fades to black.**


	5. Day 370

**The screen flickers for a bit before you see the author typing away on his computer.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and welcome back to another chapter of The Familiar of Twilight.***

***Anyway I will keep this short as this is a breather chapter before the events of the Mott arc.***

***I know that you all are expecting it soon, the earliest I can promise is in July as I will be working on From No One to Someone for the entirety of June.***

***Still I hope you all enjoy this chapter as I had to rework it a quite a bit.***

***Anyway let's move on shall we.***

***First off I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the Familiar of Zero.***

***Secondly just sit back, relax, maybe put some music on, and enjoy. I will see you all at the end of the chapter.***

**The author types away at his computer as the screen fades to black as the chapter begins. **

* * *

**Day 370: Zero**

* * *

"So she takes you in the middle of the night from where you chose to sleep and you found yourself in one of the courts once again?" Siesta asked Roxas incredulously as nodded.

"That is correct, but I am not that bothered by it anymore. Though me and Tabitha are still trying to figure out why Slyphid keeps doing that." Roxas said, still a little confused on why the dragon keeps doing that.

"Maybe the same way that some of the familiars seem to cling to you." Siesta said, pointing to Roxas's arm.

The Nobody blinked as he saw that a small brown, fat snake had wrapped itself around his arm, getting him to sigh.

"I guess your right, perhaps I should be more worried about figuring that out." Roxas sighed out as he scratched underneath the snake's jaw, getting it to hiss in content.

It had been four days since his duel with Guiche, which would mark this his 370th day of being alive.

Well at least without being trapped inside Sora that is.

During those days he had to admit his favorite part was hanging out with Siesta, especially after that night…

By Kingdom Hearts it was awkward the next day, he couldn't even look at her without his face turning the slightest shade of red. Something he was pretty sure Siesta was feeling by her reactions. However by the next day thing returned to normal.

Although sometimes that odd feeling would return whenever the two of them where alone or when they were trying Marteau's attempts to make sea salt ice cream.

Speaking of which, the chef was getting better and better at perfecting it. But it was still lacking the decisive flavor that he was used too. At least he didn't gag last time, but the ice cream was still too salty for his tastes.

Anyway right now the two of them where talking while folding laundry, with Roxas helping her after folding Louise's clothes.

She had given him the task of cleaning them all before her last class for the day, emasculated and folded perfectly. Otherwise she would have some choice words for him.

That was as much as she could do for the moment anyway. With Colbert and Osmond making clear the boundaries of what she could do Louise could hardly do anything to him, as Roxas followed the chores they agreed on to the letter.

Although she has swallowed some of her pride in order to keeping him around, it also demand her to put such a willful familiar back into his rightful place in her mind.

So she has tried multiple times to get at least slip up and give her the right to punish him. But as he had never done so at least once, which annoyed Louise to no end, just as much as his ability to seeming vanish into thin air.

Though he had to thank Siesta and the other members of the academy's cleaning staff for pointers.

Still this lead to the two of them having a rocky relationship, but there was some mutual respect for each other

One for showing everyone else that she was truly a mage and for the prestige for having a strong familiar, while the other was for being given another chance to exist.

So while it was rocky and Louise sometimes trying to cause trouble, the Nobody thought that it was at least a decent place to start.

Considering he was once on decent terms with Larxene of all people, Roxas believed he could at least get on the same kind of level with Louise.

"Um… excuse me." A voice said, breaking the Nobody out of his musings to see an older student by the color of his cloak. "Can I please have my familiar back?"

"Sure." Roxas said, walking over to the older student. When he was not even a foot from the older student, the snake jumped from his arm and curled around her master's.

"There you are girl, I was wondering where you went." The older student said, before sighing. "Sorry about that, she has never acted like this before."

"It's alright." Roxas said, getting the older student to nod before walking away.

The Nobody just sighed at that and went to inspect the pile of Louise's clothes.

It was probably around the time for him to leave. Meaning she could be back at her room any minute now, and he would very much prefer it if she didn't try to yell his head off when she got back.

"Is it really time for you to go?" Siesta sighed out, getting Roxas to nod.

"Sadly it is, so I will see you tonight after dinner then?" Roxas asked.

"Of course, Marteau said he was willing to make another batch of sea salt ice cream later and I will be busy until then." Siesta said with a shudder.

The last batch was way too salty for her tastes.

"Hopefully it will turn up better then last time." Roxas said, getting Siesta to nod. "So until next time Siesta."

"Until next time Roxas." Siesta said happily, getting Roxas to smile as he picked up Louise's clothes.

He opened up a burst of darkness behind on of the clothesline poles and walked into it, giving it the impression of him vanishing into thin air.

"How does he keep doing that?" Siesta asked herself as she went back to folding the clothes.

There was a small betting pool going on with the other servants on the castle staff on how Roxas keeps doing that.

And an even bigger one on how long until his master figures it out, as it was common gossip that she was annoyed by this trait.

Something that she was wondering about as well.

One of the many mysteries of here new friend. He hasn't revealed much except for about his home town and a few tails about his friend Axel. Someone who Roxas admitted to her that he wasn't sure what his condition was, but he missed him dearly.

A statement she shared with him, concerning her family back in Tarbes.

While she couldn't go back home as often as she liked considering the distance from the academy, she at least knew they were alright through letters she sent every now and then.

Unlike Roxas.

Though she hoped to meet him again and that she would meet him.

He sounded pleseant enough and she was curious what her new friend's past was like.

But from what little Roxas told her she had a few choice words for him, including the times he disappeared on him for days to weeks at a time with no contact!

She might be weeks without seeing her family including her younger siblings, but she at the very least was sending them letters about missing them! And this Axel didn't say anything about what he was doing about during disappearances or how much he had missed Roxas!

So the first time she sees Axel, she is going to give him a piece of her mind for being a bit of an irresponsible sibling figure!

* * *

Axel was walking on the clock tower of Twilight Town, sadly eating an ice cream at losing Kairi once again this time to Saïx when he felt a chill going up his spine.

He had the strangest feelings that someone had memorized him, but not in a way he would have liked.

* * *

Roxas reappeared on Louise's room, laying her folded clothes on her bed neatly.

Before taking his Black Coat to reveal his casual clothes.

A simple white button up shirt, black pants, and black boots.

The clothes that Osmond had promised him, given to him by Siesta herself the day after the duel…

It was an awkward reunion that morning, one he thought that Osmond was all too amused by. Judging form the knowing look and grin from the next time he saw the headmaster

The clothes while simple and according to Louise made him look even more like a commoner actually felt comfortable if a little bland looking. Still he didn't have much to complain about as he only wore them while working on chores or going to classes.

The rest of the time he was in his Organization attire, as unlike his other clothes they never seemed to need to be washed and were much more durable.

Especially with how much he had been training in the mornings for the past before Louise awoke…and struggling to get himself out of Slyphid's grasp.

Anyway he had found a good spot far off from the Academy after opening multiple Corridors. He had found a good spot among the forested hills nearby the academy. A clearing with plenty of tall trees and a small stream running through. Nice and alone and the perfect place to kick the rust that had accumulated while he was within Sora.

That and to get a hand at the same training Sora had undergone in The Land of Dragons. As he could personally attest to it was pretty damn effective for his Somebody. Although he couldn't use it's full effectiveness, it was at least a start.

But that was on the physical side of his training, as for the magic side…it was complicated.

Literally, the system of magic in Halkeginia was more complicated then what he was used to, especially Earth magic.

Also he didn't really find most of the lectures in classes he attended all that interesting. He was more used to learning out in the field and in fighting Heartless. So while he had only a little luck, he mainly stuck with perfecting the spells Sora had learned before they separated.

Which was slow going in itself.

Still he was at least making some progress, just not as much as he would have liked, but still it was better then nothing at all.

"Familiar you better have-" Louise said as she opened the door and broke the Nobody out of his musings. Upon seeing the folded clothes on her bed, she cut herself off and stormed off to the bed and began to meticulously inspect each and every piece of her clothing.

Roxas had a grin, knowing she will try and fail to look for a flaw. With Siesta helping to teach him and tips from the other servants have made it difficult to find any previewed flaw Louise could find.

Though the Nobody frowned when he noticed that Louise seemed a little more aggravated then usual as she was searching through the clothes.

It was written all over her posture and face, something had upset her even more so then usual. Something even more so then when she was being mocked and called Zero by the other students.

Something that still confused Roxas even after days of being around her and whenever he tried to bring it up, Louise silenced him almost immediately.

"Well done familiar, perfect work as per usual." Louise said with gritted teeth. "I would expect nothing less from my familiar after all."

"Louise are you alright?" Roxas asked, only to see Louise getting even more annoyed.

"I'm fine familiar, nothing you should worry about." She said, lying through her teeth.

Truthfully she was annoyed, angry, and upset.

In her last glass she tried to use magic and blew herself up once again…and her wand snapped as well.

An utter embarrassment for any mage, even more so for here. Now she was basically a commoner and this was the fifth time in the past two years this has happened!

The fact most of her class had mocked her about it after that little event now only infuriated her even more.

Now she would have to get a new wand tomorrow, her only saving grace being that their last class was supposed to be a lecture today. So she will only have to deal with the mocking instead of blowing herself up.

So she will not let them win, she will not allow them to get to her.

Her pride could not allow herself to show weakness, especially around her familiar.

Or else she could lose her familiar and all hope of becoming a noble.

Something she could not allow to happen.

"Are you sure that you are alright Louise?" Roxas asked, snapping the proud girl of her thoughts and getting her to notice how close he had gotten to her.

"I already told you there is nothing to worry about or concern yourself with familiar. Just focus on getting ready and making yourself look presentable for class." Louise said as she backed away with huff, getting Roxas to sigh.

If she was going to act prideful that's fine, he was pretty much used to it by now.

!

Class was pretty much normal from his previous experiences from the past few days.

Mainly trying and failing to stay focused on the lecture, Tabitha reading her book, Kirche catching the attention of all the other males in the class beside the professor, and the blonde haired girl with curls that had slapped Guiche was glaring at him.

But what was unusual during this time was that a number of students had ramped up their insults on Louise, more so than usual.

So much so that the professor of the class had to enforce detention on a few of them.

Honestly Roxas didn't even know why they would do such a thing.

He had personally never seen Louise cast any magic before and most of the professors stoped her from the classes he did attend with her.

Perhaps she was just bad with magic?

Still despite how prideful she was, it was down right cruel the way they kept jeering and joking at her about being a Zero.

And with each time it was thrown at her, it seemed to chisel away at the stone wall that was her pride. It was minor, be had had been around the pinkette enough to know this bombardment of insults was taking it's toll on her.

By the time class had ended Louise had hardly spoken a word, grabbed her things, and then promptly bolt out of the classroom without losing her composure.

Roxas quickly followed after her, determined to get to the bottom of this.

He had been hearing the same insults directed towards her for days now, it has never been this bad before so something must have happened earlier.

It would explain why she seemed so upset earlier...well even more so then usual.

So Roxas trailed behind her silently through the halls silently before managing to catch up to Louise and was surprised by the expression on her face.

The closet that he could describe it would be sullen, with her eyes turned downwards to the floor.

"Louise." Roxas said, snapping the girl out of her funk and for her to send the Nobody an annoyed glare.

"What is it familiar?!" Louise said, frustration leaking into her tone.

Roxas blinked at how quickly she hid he emotion, before deciding to just ask her about.

Otherwise he was sure she would get even more annoyed if he took to long to

respond.

"Why do they call you a Zero?" Roxas asked.

Louise looked surprised for a few moments before she sent a rage filled glare at him.

"It is none of your business familiar! So do not ask such a thing again or else!" Louise growled out before turning with a huff and began walking away with a huff.

"Well if Louise is not going to tell you, I will happily oblige to you handsome." Kirche's voice rang out from behind him.

Both he and Louise turned around to see her and Tabitha approaching them. The former giving Roxas a seductive grin.

"Go away Zerbst!" Louise growled out venomously.

"Oh don't be like that Louise, doesn't Roxas at least deserve to know the truth. Especially after what happened earlier today and how you messed up. About how you are a failure as a mage." Kirche said, only enraging Louise even more.

"Don't you dare!" Louise shouted out venomously.

Kirche only grinned at that before turning to Roxas.

"The reason they all call her Zero is because it is exactly what she is. She has zero talent when it comes to magic. She can not even cast a spell without causing an explosion. One such incident destroyed her wand earlier this morning. So despite her admirable determination to become a mage, it is highly unlikely Louise will be anything more then a Zero."

Kirche said, getting Louise to hang her head and clutched her fist as she tried her best to contain her emotions.

...This was it.

Her familiar was going to leave her wasn't he.

It only be fitting after all, he was going to think of her as a Zero just like almost everyone else.

She couldn't cast a single spell, didn't have a affinity to any of the elements, and now could add her familiar leaving as well.

Maybe she really was a Zero...

"So what will it be handsome, I'd say you might be need of a new master now that you know the truth?" Kirche said seductively, drawing closer to the Nobody.

"I am afraid that if you are making that offer, then I would have to pass on it. I could do not care if Louise is a Zero or not, I am not leaving her." Roxas said.

Louise snapped out of her funk at hearing his words and Kirche looked shocked.

Tabitha merely lifted her eyes from her book, curious to see how this would go down.

"What do you mean? Shouldn't you care, Louise can't properly cast a spell to save her life, as a familiar you should at least be disappointed that she is a complete failure." Kirche said in shock, taking a few steps back.

"Simple I don't care about that. I can care less about magic, money, or nobility. So I could care less about of she can preform magic or not. What I consider important to me is my friends and being my own person." Roxas said, surprising Kirche.

This was unexpected, a familiar completely circumventing what is know and is uncaring about Louise's repeated failure as a mage.

"I don't know how you can live such little pride. Then again I suppose it must be a thing for commoners." Kirche said with a laugh.

"I don't know how nobles can live with so much. I already have enough experience with pride after dealing with Guiche and being around Louise." Roxas admitted, getting Kirche to grin and the pinkette to snap out of her shock and growled at the Nobody.

"Though I suppose you are right handsome, while Louise is a failure of a mage she certainly has the pride of one." Kirche said with a laugh. "So if you think that, why are you still with her then?"

"As I said before, I owe her quite a bit." Roxas said.

"And what would that be?" Kirche asked.

"Everything." Roxas said honestly, shocking all of the mages. With that he took a few steps before turning to Louise. "You coming Louise?"

Normally Louise would snap and yell at her familiar. For being ordered by an lowly commoner.

But she was still in shock, so she just threw one last glare at Kirche before stomping off after Roxas.

The redheaded mage just stood there in shock before sighing and crossing her arms underneath her chest.

"Well I didn't expect that. Still he is proving quite the challenge. Though it is getting tiresome to continue." Kirche sighed out, before she gained a sultry grin. "I might just have to take it to the next step then."

Tabitha just shook her head at her friend's suggestion, figuring that she was going to do with something like that.

Still it just added a bit more to the mystery of Roxas.

A mage without pride, content with what he had and serving as a familiar underneath Louise.

If only cause he owed her for saving him.

Another oddity as no mage would ever doing something like that willingly.

One that has piqued her interest once again.

Besides the fact Slyphid keeps sneaking off at night, she was still trying to figure it out.

Perhaps it was time to attempt to pry into him once again..

* * *

The rest of the afternoon and after dinner pretty much remained the same as it had for the past few days.

Except for after their run in with Kirche and Tabitha Louise had been far more...reserved then usual.

She hardly talked to him for the rest of the day and when she did, it was never in the tone she usually did.

It was a little discerning for the Nobody, but whenever he asked Louise she would just brush it off and say she was fine.

So Roxas stopped asking.

Though she seemed to have snapped out of it afterwards, as she had haughty reminded him to get her up early for tomorrow.

According to her it would be at the best time to head into town and she didn't want to miss anything they would have on sale, including a more durable wand.

That was something Roxas was looking forward to actually, to see some more of this world.

But that could wait for tomorrow.

For now though, he was washing away the taste of salt in his mouth.

"So another failure." Marteau sighed out as Roxas and Siesta were washing out their mouths with water.

The two of them were trying another batch of sea salt ice cream, except this batch was too salty for the both of them.

"No it is good, but there was just too much salt." Siesta said honestly before downing some more water.

"I would say just use a lot less salt and it should be perfect." Roxas said, getting the chef to nod his head.

"Then the next batch should be perfect, although I won't be able to make it tomorrow. We will be getting some more supplies tommorow and I have to train some new kitchen staff for the rest of the day." Marteau said.

"It's alright besides we will both busy tomorrow." Siesta sighed out, getting Roxas to nod.

While Louise was going to take him out of town and according to Siesta it was quite a bit away, the maid was going to be busy for the entire day tomorrow besides her usual duties.

According to her and Marteau, someone important from Tristain's heiarchy was visiting the academy tomorrow, so she would be busy preparing for their arrival while he was away.

"I figured as much." Marteau said as he took the bowls and walked to a nearby stove. "Anyway our key, do you mind helping me and Siesta with the dishes tonight?"

"Not at all, I would have offered to help even if you didn't ask." Roxas said, getting the head chef to nod.

"Alright then, but first there is one more thing that I would like the two of you to test." Marteau said with a smile, getting both the Nobody and maid to look on in anticipation as he pulled out a tray from the stove.

The contents of which got Siesta's eyes to sparkle at seeing the contents of it.

On the tray was multiple rows of small purple, conical shapes..

"Cuberdon, Marteau you shouldn't have." Siesta said excitedly as he laid out the tray in front of them.

"But of course, after working on this sea salt ice cream I figured that I would brush up some old recipes that I haven't cooked in a while." Marteau said with a smile.

"I take it that this is some kind of dessert?" Roxas asked while inspecting one of them in his hand.

It was warm to the touch and felt hard.

"Of course, cuberdon is a type of candy that is normally found in the costal towns in Tristain. It has a nice hard outside, but usually a gooey, sweet raspberry filling inside. They are one of the most sought after candy in the kingdom due to their short shelf life and rareity outside Tristain's coasts." Siesta said excitedly, before noticing that Roxas was staring at her in amazement. Her face turned aflame. "I just really like sweets."

"I could tell." Roxas said with a grin, causing her face to flush a little bit more. "Still it is impressive that you know so much."

"Well of course. They are one of my favorite sweets and learned all about them in order to cook some for me and my family...though I am still working on perfecting them." Siesta admitted sheepishly.

"Though you have come a long way in making them since you have gotten here." Marteau said with a shudder.

Since arriving to the academy he has been helping her in learning how to cook sweets whenever they both had spare time. She had come a long way since them.

Though he would always remember her first attempt at making cuberdon.

He had to spend the rest of the day on the chamberpot.

"Well don't worry I am sure that you will be able to perfect the recipe soon." Roxas said honestly, getting her to smile.

"Thank you Roxas." Siesta said happily.

"Now then why don't the two of you take a few minutes and enjoy the cuberdon. I will get a head start on the dishes. Oh and Roxas, feel free to take some to that dragon Siesta has been talking about afterwards." Marteau said before walking off.

"Are you sure?" Roxas asked.

"Of course, I wouldn't have suggested them otherwise. No go ahead and have some and I will call the two of you to help out." Marteau said before he walked off. "Oh and be careful, they are still hot."

"Alright." Roxas said as he picked one off the tray as well as Siesta. The both of them popped one into their mouths.

It was hard at first, once he had bitten into it he saw that it was everything Siesta had described it too be.

Except for one minute detail.

It was still too hot for the Nobodies taste.

Siesta giggled as Roxas quickly downed a glass of water.

"Marteau did warn you." Siesta said with a smile.

"He did." Roxas sighed out as he finished the glass. "Though then again I have only really had cold sweets before. Probably not used to the heat."

"That might be true." Siesta said before moving a little closer to him. "So did you like it?"

"It was just like you said, it was pretty good. Minus how hot it was of course." Roxas said getting her to nod.

"Of course, it is one of my favorite foods after all. Though to be honest, it place in comparison to my mother's peach walnut bread." Siesta said with a smile.

"That actually sounds pretty good. Do you mind telling me about it?" Roxas asked, getting Siesta to nod here head happily.

"Absolutely." Siesta said with a smile before she began to talk with Roxas.

Unaware that while washing dishes Marteau looked at the two of them from the corner of his eyes. A smile on his face and a certain glint in his eyes as Roxas and Siesta conversed happily with one another.

* * *

Later that night Roxas opened up a Corridor onto the top of the central tower of the academy while carrying a small handful of cuberdon for whenever Slyphid would show up.

After they cooled down, they honestly tasted better to the Nobody.

He had spent a good while helping with the dishes with Siesta, Marteau, and the rest of the kitchen staff. Spending the part of the time chatting with Siesta, knowing that he possibly wouldn't get to do so with his friend tomorrow.

Once he found a spot to get comfortable at, he was surprised to hear of wing beats coming up from the courtyard.

Roxas was surprised that Slyphid was coming this early. The dragon always did so while he was asleep.

Until he sensed who was with the dragon.

"I should have expected that you would have come after earlier." Roxas said as Slyphid landed right next to him and Tabitha disembarked from her familiar.

Not even a moment later, Slyphid began to nuzzle her head against Roxas's arm. Until it began to sniff out the cuberdon in Roxas's hand.

"Figured that you would want these." Roxas said as Slyphid cooed and made an attempt to snap the treats up.

"Slyphid." Tabitha said, getting her familiar to back off and let out a soft whine.

Which was silenced when Roxas threw some towards the dragon, getting Slyphid to eat them up happily.

"Now then I think I get what you wanted to know." Roxas asked, getting Tabitha to nod before holding out and empty hand. "And that you want some cuberdon as well."

"Yes." Tabitha said with complete seriousness.

"Alright then." Roxas said as he handed a few of them to Tabitha.

She began to eat one before sitting down and gesturing him to sit down as well with her staff, getting him to oblige.

"So what do you want to know. Though by now I won't spill anything." Roxas said, getting Tabitha to nod.

She had tried to have gotten some about him in their conservations about Slyphid's behavior...well more like one sided conservations as Tabitha mainly spoke one or two words at a time.

Only for him to hardly reveal anything at all, which was expected. But she was curious and after what he revealed earlier, there was no possibility that she was leaving until her curiosity was at least satiated a little.

"Your reason." Tabitha said simply, slipping another cuberdon into her mouth.

"I figured as much." Roxas sighed, thinking of the issue.

After all how do you tell someone that you were saved from the point of oblivion from within the heart of someone else?

Anyone hearing that would think that you were crazy.

If he didn't think of the exact way to describe his scenario.

"Is this the only question you are going to ask?" Roxas asked, getting Tabitha to nod.

"Tonight." She said, getting Roxas to sigh as he bit into another of the candies.

He should have figured as much.

"The reason why I owe Louise everything...is before summoning me I was at my lowest point. I had lost nearly everything and was left to rot due to the choices of someone else." Roxas said, his tone laced with some anger before calming himself down. "It's part of the reason I stick around with Louise, she gave me a second chance to exist."

"To exist?" Tabitha asked, getting Roxas to shake his head.

"That's all you are going to get from me. Though I will say that without that reason I would have left here and Louise days ago. At least before I meet Siesta." Roxas said honestly, getting Tabitha to nod in acceptence.

Having already coming to a similar conclusion her self.

Not a moment later Slyphid came over to the two and nudged her head against his hand, giving him a pleading look for some more candy.

Roxas just sighed as he put another one into his mouth and tossed the rest to the dragon, who began to munch on the cuberdon happily.

"So I guess that you are going to head to back to your room soon?" Roxas asked as Slyphid tilted her head into Roxas's hand as he scratched her ridges.

"Soon." Tabitha said before facing away from the Nobody. "Nice out."

Roxas looked in the same direction that she was and saw the clear night sky and more stars out then what he had seen previously on this world.

"Your right." Roxas said simply as he leaned back and found himself lying against Slyphid who simply continued to rub her head against Roxas's.

It stayed like this for a good while as the three of them just sat on the tower's roof.

Just enjoying the splendor of the night sky.

* * *

**The** **screen flickers for a bit before you the author reappears.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and I hoped that you all enjoyed this chapter.***

***So let's get down to business shall we.***

***I will keep this short, this chapter saw Roxas just adjusting to his new life on Halkeginia and stregthening his bonds with those close to him ***

***Which considering what happens this arc might twist the knife even further for you guys.***

***But enough on that there is two things that I would like to announce.***

***First up is a thank you to for all your support. This story** **is the second best story of mine on this night, with 171 favorites and 194 follows as of this chapter. About 2/3 of From No One to Someone ****and nearly 1/5 of A Heart in the Void.***

***Nearly 200 follows for a story might not seem like much, but it is for me so once again thank you all for the support.***

***The second and last announcement is what everyone has been waiting for.***

***The chapter will be out in July and will feature Roxas witnessing a glimpse of the dark side of Halkeginia's nobles, DrWriter21's characters, questions about love, and the event we all have been waiting for. So I hope that you all will enjoy the next chapter when it comes out.***

***That's all for now. Leave a review or PM me if you have any questions. So until next time, ciao!***

**The author snaps his fingers and the screen fades to black.**


	6. Love?

**The** **screen flickered a bit before you find yourself in a theater right next to the author as he worked on the projector before noticing you.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 and welcome back to another chapter of The Familiar of Twilight.***

***As promised this chapter begins the Mott Arc and before July ended as promised.***

***And for those wondering why the theater, two reasons actually.***

***First off this chapter is mainly based off one of the best chapters of A Heart in the Void and I finally get to use the chance the characters I had gotten permission from DrWriter21 which I have been waiting quite a long time to use. So I hope you all will enjoy that.***

***Secondly...to my surprise with only five chapters this story has passed 200 favorites and 200 followers. Making it the second story of mine to do so with a total of 201 favorites and 228 followers as of the time I post this chapter. It warms my heart to see so many people appreciate this story, so thank you all for the support. I couldn't have done this without you.***

***Now then, I believe it is time to start this chapter shall we.***

***First off I do not own Kingdom Hearts or Familiar of Zero.***

***Secondly just sit back, relax, maybe put some music on, and enjoy. I will see you all at the end of the chapter.***

**The author tapped the projector and it flared to life, beginning the chapter.**

* * *

**Love?**

* * *

Roxas woke up as the sun started to shine down upon the land. He tried to get up, only for him to be entrapped in Slyphid's embrace once again.

The Nobody just sighed, having been used to the dragon sneaking up here with him by now.

Roxas quietly sneaked his way out of Slyphid's hold, knowing that it take the sun to rise quite a higher before the dragon to wake up.

He surveyed the position of the sun. Louise had told him to get her up early to get into town, but she didn't specify when.

"I suppose that I could slip in some training." Roxas said, creating a Corridor of Darkness to the top of one of the surrounding towers and stepped forward.

Once he did he took in a deep breath as he began to gather wind around his feet. Roxas took a good look at he where he wanted to go, before jumping off the tower's roof.

The wind propelled him high and far into the air. Once he reached the apex of his jump he surrounded himself in wind and kept afloat for a few brief moments before he started to fall. Roxas just sighed before gliding back down to the next tower's roof.

"So close, just a little better then yesterday." Roxas sighed out before getting into position and trying again.

The day after his duel with Guiche and during his first time in class with Louise he noticed several students practicing to fly without any form of fairy dust.

Seeing that and missing the feeling of flying back in Neverland Roxas began to practice trying to fly during his spare time every now and then.v

Getting a few brief pointers from Tabitha when she came to the top of the academy to find out where Slyphid had disappeared too.

Still it looks like it will take quite sometime before he could get it quite down, unlike the other spell he had picked up.

He continued to train like this for a while longer before he miscalculated how he was in the air and immediately began to glide past a tower's roof and tried to reach for academy's wall, but it was too late.

As the Nobody continued downwards he was about to open up a Corridor of Darkness.

Only to be snatched of the air by Slyphid, who let out a soft roar at Roxas.

"Thanks for the save Slyphid." Roxas said as the dragon flew up to the central tower and began to nuzzle against him as they landed."I'm alright, I just had a misstep. Just need to be careful next time I practice."

Slyphid stopped nuzzling him and gave Roxas a concerned glance.

"I am not going to continue to practice for awhile after that misstep if that is what you are thinking about. Besides need to get Louise up soon." Roxas said.

Slyphid just let out a huff at that.

"Though I suppose she can have a few more minutes of sleep." Roxas said with a small smile as he figured what Slyphid want as he scratched it's neck. Getting the dragon to preen and cooing as he did so.

Besides it was a beautiful sun rise, he could wait just a bit more before heading into town and seeing what else Halkeginia had to offer

* * *

A little bit later he woke up Louise, she was less then pleased to have been awaken early until Roxas reminded her about what she told him last night.

After that she changed her tune and immediately got changed and the two of them departed Tristain Academy to the nearest town, which actually wasn't a town at all.

In actuality it was the capital city of Tristain, Tristania. A little redundant when it came to the naming, but Roxas could careless though.

They had to get to Tristania by a three hour horseback ride from the academy. Something Roxas swore to do the least amount possible. It was a bit of an unpleasant experience for the Nobody who would have preferred to walk or used a Corridor of Darkness next time.

Right now they were in Tristania.

It was a lot more rural then the World that never was and much, much more lively. There was people everywhere instead of Nobodies. Walking down the bustling streets where people either taking in the sights, going into shops or browsing merchants's wares from the various stands lining the streets, or just going about with their lives.

In all honesty it was a welcome sight for Roxas, it kind of reminded him of Twilight Town.

"Alright familiar listen up, you are permitted to wander around the city and familiarize yourself with the layout of the streets. We will be coming back and I might need for you to know your way around Tristania. Meet me back here in over an hour after I have gotten everything I need, understood familiar?" Louise said with a huff.

"Got it." Roxas said nonchalantly, not really caring about her orders.

Louise let out a slight growl at that before silencing herself. Letting this disrespect to her slide as getting a new wand was more important.

So with a huff she turned in the opposite direction and walk into a nearby crowd. Which promptly split for Louise as she walked by through them. Some people looking at her in fear or more specifically her cloak.

The Nobody guessed they might have crossed paths with some of the worst of noble kind or need horror stories about them.

Personally he didn't have any kind of encounter with such nobles in the academy, minus his first encounter with Guiche. Most have give him a wide beareth after the duel with some sent him glares and mutters under their breathe.

More of an annoyance then antagonistic.

Still Roxas hoped that he wouldn't encounter such a noble as he walked in the opposite direction of Louise.

There Roxas walked down the streets taking in all the sights and to memorize every detail as best he could.

After all he might come back later in the week when he had time for it. So it would be for the best to memorize a place to open up a Corridor of Darkness to.

Anyway people all around him of all ages where walking around, most of them stopping at a merchant's stands to get items like food, clothing, trinkets, and potions.

The later of which interested Roxas, curious on what they were like and if they functioned like the ones he was used too.

But after seeing an entire shop full of potions, the Nobody decided against it.

He had more then enough potions from during his time with the Organization that he could open up his own store full.

Chuckling at the thought Roxas just walked past it.

Only to feel a sharp pain wind up his arm from the rune.

"What the?" Roxas asked as the pain started to clam down before shrugging and walking down the street as to investigate what caused his rune to act up before he moved on with his walk through the city.

* * *

About 10 minutes later in a blacksmith shop the owner thanked the Founder it was a slow day despite quite the boon in business lately due to a thief named Fouquet robbing nobles blind.

He closed the shop down with a bottle of liquor in hand, questioning why he promised his father on his deathbed that he wouldn't melt down that annoying, rusted slag of steel.

It all started when from underneath a pile of swords what sounded like a mix of joyous sobbing erupted and scared away a messenger from a noble for an order of swords. And no one else coming through, having hear the man screamed about his shop was haunted.

It was going to take him a day or two to clear up the misconception and it was starting to get old.

At least he managed to sell one of his best swords though.

"Shut up Derf or I will melt you down for scrap!" The owner shouted out, getting the sword laugh out loud.

"Never you knave!" Def shouted out from underneath the pile of swords, getting the blacksmith to grumble out as he unflasked the liquor and started to drink, already going to the cabinet and planning to get some more.

In order to drown out the sword's sobs, cheers, and eventual insults.

* * *

Roxas sighed as he inspected the elixirs in front of him.

He had heard about someone was selling them and decided to check them out to see how they compared to the ones Moogle's make.

Which was a slight disappointment as instead of being a liquid gold it was more akin muddy water.

He was sure they might have held some properties given the magical nature of this world, but it probably would pale in comparison to whatever the Moogle's could synthesis.

Roxas just sighed before he turned around and began to walk away to explore more of city.

Before her heard a small scream and the sound of something breaking caught his attention.

"You stupid little brat! Do you know how much écus this robe is worth or the elixir you just waited?!" An angry voice snapped at someone.

"I-I'm sorry sir!" A terrified young voice cried out getting Roxas to turn to see what all the commotion was about.

The Nobody saw a young girl about 10 years old with brown with bright green eyes back into an older woman who Roxas guessed was her mother in fear.

The source of her fear was a tall black haired, grayed eyed man with his blue robes marred by a dirty brown stain. Judging by the man's red cloak underneath a white ruffle and the staff in his hand that he was a noble.

His demeanor and this fact had Roxas on edge, even more so with the strong amount of darkness radiating from his heart.

"Count Mott please forgive her, she is just a little girl! She didn't know what she did, so please forgive my daughter! It will not happen again!" The mother begged out in fear.

Count Mott calmed down somewhat before his face darkened.

"Your right." The noble said coldly as he trained his staff towards the girl. "It won't."

With that he launched several shards of ice from his staff that struck the little girl and embedded themselves into her stomach.

Roxas, her mother, and the crowd could only watch with horror as she crashed into the ground, blood started to pour out of her wound.

The mother erupted into tears as she rushed to her daughter and began cradle her as the blood began to pool down onto the ground.

Roxas was trying his best not to see red as tried to grab Oblivion from his bag in order to deal with the noble.

He and Sora had seen many horrible events among the worlds, but this... this was just no words to describe just how horrid and petty this was. Killing a little girl for bumping into you a ruining your clothes?

This Count Mott had to have been far worst then any of the he stories he heard from the academy's staff about nobles. He needed to be dealt with immediately.

As Roxas grabbed Oblivion however, he stopped himself.

The look in Count Mott's eyes reminded him of something he had experienced while inside of Sora.

Shan Yu, a man with an utter lack of regard for any other human unless it suited his own ends.

So if he tried anything here... then there would be a lot more people in danger.

As much as he hated to admit it... he was going to wait a bit inorder to help the girl out.

But if Mott tried anything else, there would be no hesitation.

"Enough with the crying woman, either quiet down or you will join be next." Count Mott said coolly.

The girl's mother struggled to choke back her sobs as tears streamed down her face even more.

"Let this be a lesson to all of you commoners." Count Mott said before turning to the horrified crowd. "You see what happens when you step out of place and assault a noble."

"Assult! " The mother screamed at him, raw anger in her tone. "She bumped into you by accident!"

"I will give you one last chance woman. One more word out of you woman and you will join your daughter in death." He said menacingly.

The mother gave Count Mott the most spiteful glare the Nobody had ever seen someone seen before tending back to her daughter.

"That's what I thought." Count Mott said with a twisted smile before walking away, the crowd parting fearfully as he passed through them.

Once the gap in the crowd closed up, Roxas steeled his nerves and began to approach the crying woman and her daughter.

He could hold back his rage towards the noble for now, as he had to make sure the girl didn't die on his watch.

Just like with-

Roxas let out a slight wince as a flash of pain coursesed through his head, but he kept walking undeterred.

He could focus on that later.

"Ellie." The woman sobbed out as she cradled her daughter's body, with the ice having melted and leaving gapping holes in her stomach. "Someone please help her, she is going to die!" The mother begged, but no one in the crowd did anything.

Most where still staring and horror and shock, though a good portion of them held their elixirs close to them. Some just out right booked it rather then help the mother and her girl out.

Roxas looked at their fleeting forms with disgust and wondered how could some people act like that. Acting more heartless then a Nobody like him.

As he walked past the crowd, the mother looked up at him with urgency and panic in her eyes.

"Please help us, I'll do anything! Please just help me get Ellie to a doctor!" The woman begged, tears streaming down her face even harder.

The Nobody looked down at the girl as he dug through his bag for the items he needed. She had her eyes closed and was whimpering and gasping in pain, face losing color quickly.

She didn't have much time left, probably would have past sooner if her mother hadn't done her best to stop the bleeding.

"Lay her down onto the ground and remove your hands." Roxas said as he pulled out a mega potion and a mega ether from his bag.

" What are you talking about, we need to get her to a doctor!" The woman cried out, getting Roxas to shake his head.

"If we did so it might be too late with how much she is bleeding out. Please just trust me on this, if you do not I will help as best that I can to get here to a doctor." Roxas said trying to reassure the mother and looking directly in her eye.

She stared at him for a few moments before looking back between her daughter and the Nobody before slowly nodding and laying her daughter gently to the ground.

"I hope you know what you are doing." The mother sobbed out as she removed her bloodstained hands from her daughter's wounds as Roxas uncorked the mega potion.

"I do, now can you please hold her done for a second. She might thrash a bit, but this is to prevent any infections from forming." Roxas said as the woman nodded and held her daughter down.

Roxas poured a bit of the mega potion into her open wounds, getting the girl to whimper even more and start to thrash a bit while her tearful mother held her down. Once half of the potion was gone, Roxas stopped and summoned Oathkeeper. Getting the woman to back up in shock and a little fear.

"Here goes nothing, Curaga!" Roxas casted the spell erupted into a magic circle around them.

From there Roxas focus on making it smaller and smaller until it only covered the area around the girl. He struggled to maintain it as condensing the circle like this required more effort then to cast it.

Yet it was working as the girls wounds were closing and the color returned to her face.

The mother could only watch in shock as this mage was healing her daughter as Roxas downed his mega ether as he had run out of magic.

In another minute the girls wounds was fully closed and replaced by unblemish skin. Roxas fell back and panted as he dispelled the spell and his Keyblade.

He was almost completely out of magic and exhausted, but it was well worth it.

The girl's eyes opened slowly as she sat up, wincing as she sat up and wrapping her arms around her stomach.

"Here, this will help with the pain, just make sure to drink it all up. despite how bland it tastes." Roxas said, handing the girl the remains of the mega potion.

Which she quickly drank up before standing up without a hitch and sticking her tongue at the taste.

"Ellie!" The mother sobbed out, looking at her daughter in awe and knelt down to hug her.

"Mom!" Ellie cried out as she hugged her mother's neck and started to cry out into the crook of it. "It hurt so much mom! I thought that I was going to die!"

"It's okay Ellie, it's over now." The mother said as she tried her best to sooth her daughter. "Everything is going to be alright now."

Roxas smiled as he watched the interaction between the two of them. Hopefully everything will be alright for them now. Though looking at them he began to feel a little hollow... moreso then usually.

To see them caring for so much, a mother for her daughter... it must be a nice thing to experience or to even feel.

An emotion he realized that went far beyond just simply caring, an emotion that he could never grasp.

The one Xaldin to deem the greatest of weaknesses, love.

Despite it being seemed a weakness both Sōta's and Beast's actions for Kairi and Belle had proven otherwise.

Then again they might both be right as love seemed to be a rather complex emotion, far more so than any

Something a Nobody like him would probably never get to understand not experience.

"Thank you very much!" The mother exclaimed tearfully, break Roxas out of his thoughts and surprising as the mother was bowing before him.

Roxas just shook his head as he help the mother up.

"There is no need for that, I was just happy to help out and make sure your daughter was alright." Roxas said as he helped the woman up before frowning. "But what happened here?"

The mother bit her lip and held Ellie close to her before answering.

"I had heard that there was going to a sale on elixirs today so I brought Ellie with me as we saved up enough to buy one for emergencies. However they were still too expensive, so I told Ellie we could eat at her favorite place today. She got excited and accidentally ran into Count Mott. Causing him to spill his elixir all over his robe." The mother explained, getting Roxas's frown to deepen.

"And for that he tried to kill her?" Roxas asked his tone turning frigid with anger at how anyone could be so petty.

The mother could only nod her head sadly at that.

"Nobles are not allowed to attack commoners without being assaulted first, but they can sometimes find ways to get around these rules and bend the truth in order to get away with it. Count Mott has done far worse for less... there are still a number of girls in the city that he has taken to be his mistresses. Some never to be seen again." The mother said, getting Roxas's anger to reach a boiling point.

While he didn't exactly know some things like what the word mistress meant... but he knew just enough to get that what happened to the girl's night have been akin to a death sentence from what this man was willing to do to Ellie alone.

"And he just gets away with all of this?" Roxas asked bitterly, getting the mother to once again nod her head sadly.

"Count Jules de Mott is the royal messenger to the palace, if anyone of us try to report him he will bring his wrath upon us commoners." The mother said sadly.

"I see." Roxas said bitterly.

How could someone with a heart like that remain in a position like that and was capable of openly attacking and killing a little girl both puzzled and infuriated him.

He had heard a couple of stories from the staff at the academy of the horrors that some nobles could do.

But to see it for real and for Mott to be able get away for it was a whole other experience entirely and only further aggravated him.

However took a breath to calm himself as a lot of people now had their attention on him.

"Did you see that?"

"I did and I could hardly believe it. A mage saving that girl's life."

"Are you sure he is a mage, he looks like an elf and has a strange sword like I heard that some use."

"No his ears aren't pointed, besides it could be a swordwand."

"Then is he a fallen noble then, it likes quite regal compared to any other swordwands I've heard about?"

The crowd started to break into chatter and with so many eyes on him it was starting to make the Nobody uncomfortable.

"I have to go. Make sure to take care of yourselves." Roxas said as he began to walk away, deciding that it was time to leave.

"Wait!" Ellie cried out as she gingerly separated herself from her mother and approached Roxas. He stopped and turned to face the little girl as she shyly approached him.

"Can you please bend down for a second mister?" Ellie said shyly, getting Roxas to shrug as he did so. Seeing no harm in it.

Only to be surprised when she had wrapped her arms around his neck tightly, causing him to flinch for a second before embracing it.

A few moments later Ellie began to separate herself from Roxas, only to surprise him once again by kissing him on the cheek.

"Thanks for saving me mister." Ellie said before turning around, her face blushing from embarrassment before running back to her mother. "Mom! I kissed his cheek!"

Roxas blinked at that before he rubbed the spot where the girl had kissed him.

It was the same way Siesta had done the night after his duel with Guiche. So was this kissing a way to say thanks?

Roxas promptly banished the thought from his mind as he gave the mother and daughter a smile and waved goodbye as he walked away.

Comments flying left and right as he walked through the crowd, but he didn't pay any mind to them.

Right now he just wanted to wait for Louise and get back to the academy. She would probably yell his ear off if he upped and left her in this city.

He had enough exploring Tristania and if his experience with Count Mott and Ellie had shown, then he had just gotten a good glimpse of both the light and darkness of Halkeginia.

Unaware to him that at a nearby alleyway that there was two people who had seen the whole thing play out.

"Tabitha tell me that you saw that?" Kirche asked her friend.

Tabitha nodded as they were both surprised by what they saw.

The former was surprised that he was a mage, but they were both surprised by him having a second strange looking swordwand and being able to heal the girl that fast with a spell like that.

Considering the grievances of Ellie's wounds, it would have taken longer for a square class water mage to have healed to such a degree. Even then there was still a slim chance Ellie wouldn't have made it, but she was alive and well.

"Did you know that he was a mage?" Kirche asked Tabitha, getting her to nod once again.

"Yes." Tabitha said, shaking her head.

She had thought that he was a dot mage when it came to use magic due to what she had seen and him asking about wind magic.

A foolish observation now after seeing him heal the girl with a square class spell.

Yet he asked her help with a spell meant for dot class mage and was struggling with it from what she saw.

So that left the question of what class of mage he was?

"Tabitha, can you tell me all that you know of Roxas then." Kirche said, a certain fire in her eye that got the petite mage to sigh at her friend.

She knew what Kirche was planning tonight and she would have no part of it.

So she went back to her book and ignored most of the questions her friend asked her considering Louise's familiar.

* * *

Roxas walked down the halls of the academy with a sigh, the events of earlier in the day still fresh on his mind.

After he had reunited to Louise after she hard gotten a new wand the two of them rode back off to the academy. It was mostly a quiet ride back there.

Once back there the two mostly stayed apart from with each other, with Louise more focused on making sure her new wand wouldn't explode on her anytime soon.

Roxas took to helping out the academy's servants if they needed help, something which they always appreciated from their key.

However Roxas was disappointed that he couldn't get a chance to interact with Siesta, however Marteau had promised that he would get the chance to do so tomorrow.

Something that had brightened up the Nobody's spirit.

Yet Roxas couldn't help but notice that there was something hidden in the man's tone. The exact nature of which he couldn't tell.

Roxas just shrugged his shoulders at that and prepared to open up a Corridor of Darkness to the roof and just call it a night.

Until he heard a familiar croaking from behind him and turned to see Flame. The familiar walked up to Roxas, who expected the salamander to wanted him to scratch it's head.

Instead Flame grabbed his pants leg and tugged it several times before Roxas took a step back and the familiar to let go.

The Nobody was about to ask Flame what he was doing, but the salamander croaked and gestured it's head to a slightly opened door down the hall.

Where he could sense that Kirche was behind it.

"I take it that Kirche sent you for me." Roxas said as he bent down to scratch the salamander's head, getting it to let out a soft growl before trying to drag him back there once again.

He pondered what she could want with him and decided it wouldn't hurt to check.

So he followed Flame to Kirches's room and noticed it was pitch black in there besides the glow coming from Flame's tail.

"You wanted to see me?" Roxas asked.

"Yes I did, now do you mind closing the door?" Kirche said from the darkness, getting the Nobody to do so.

Once the door was closed, Kirche snapped her fingers and the room was lighten up by lanterns.

To reveal Kirche standing right next to him, giving him a flirtatious smirk and what she was wearing...what could best be described as very skimpy nightwear.

Roxas felt his face heat up a little and a strange feeling welling up inside his chest.

What was going on? He never had that kind of reaction before?

He immediately tried to look away from Kirche, who immediately started approach him.

Finding his reaction at trying to look away adorable.

She had seen this kind of reaction before. The shy type, if she came onto him too soon or two fast he would bolt.

But she knew the perfect stratagem before her the fun can begin.

Get him comfortable before going making her move.

"Roxas I saw what you did today at Tristania." Kirche said as she approached him.

The Nobody paused, took a deep breath, and kept his attention on Kirche's face. Doing his damnest not to look anywhere else at her body, else that sensation he felt would return stronger then before.

"You did?" Roxas asked.

"Of course, today is the Day of the Void after all. I went with Tabitha to Tristania on Slyphid. But I clearly never expected to see what you did to that little girl." Kirche said.

Left unsaid she saw him leave with Louise and dragged Tabitha into following them.

Upon hear that Roxas figured what she was going to ask and just shrugged his shoulders.

"So what if I can use magic, wasn't exactly keeping it hidden and Tabitha knew. As for the girl, I couldn't just stand there and do nothing after what Count Mott did to her." Roxas said, his tone turning bitter at the end.

Only for that bitterness to vanish and replaced by...something else as Kirche draped her arm around his shoulder and started to press herself against him.

That strange feeling reached a critical point, to the same level it did the day Siesta kissed his cheek.

Only his side didn't feel something this soft as Kirche pressed her barely covered chest against his side.

"Now now Roxas it wouldn't be could to think about that right now. You saved the girl's life and that is all that matters." Kirche said before her tone turned serious. "Yet your ability to use such powerful magic is important considering how you healed that girl instantly."

"And?" Roxas asked, trying his best not to look down. Kirche just sighed at his response.

"You really don't get it do you, if that girl's mother didn't get her to a mage willing to help she would be dead by now with how grevious her wounds were. Maybe crippled for life if she found a competent commoner doctor in time. Either way, it would cost a fortune in écus for the remedies or procedure to save her life. Either way it took quite a bit of time to heal her like what you did in a minute or two." Kirche said. " You are able to use magic and yet act like a commoner. Are you a fallen noble perchance?"

Hearing this Roxas could only sigh.

"I am not, just because I can use magic does not make me a noble. I was simply taught how to use it." Roxas said, getting Kirche to frown.

"If you are not a fallen noble or a commoner, then what are you?" Kirche asked.

Roxas pondered briefly on what to tell her, before coming to the best conclusion.

"I'm just a nobody." Roxas said honestly, getting Kirche to stare at him for over a minute before sighing.

Figuring that pressing onto the issue to get more answers would only get her nowhere unless he wanted to talk about it.

"Well if you say so handsome, but to me your more then a nobody." Kirche said seductively as she placed her head against his shoulder and moved her arm drape it over his chest and began to gently trace her finger over his chest.

Getting the Nobody to feel himself shiver for some reason and a chill to travel down his spine.

"What are you doing?" Roxas asked shakily.

"Nothing~" Kirche said seductively. "You know it was rather kind of you to heal that girl."

"I suppose that's something a good portion of nobles would care about no matter her condition." Roxas said, getting Kirche to wince. "Considering what Guiche did to Siesta and Louise seems indifferent to them at all."

"Well for Guiche he was lashing out at being caught and after your beating I am sure that he will never make the same mistake again. As for Louise, her behavior towards commoners is shared by a majority of nobles as they were brought up on it." Kirche said.

"I figured as much from most of the student's reactions when he tried to bury Siesta. Hopefully what I did to him truly sticks otherwise I will not be as merciful." Roxas said.

"You really seem to care about the maid." Kirche said, getting Roxas to nod.

"Of course she is my first friend here." Roxas said, not mentioning Slyphid or Tabitha as he wasn't sure on his exact standing with the dragon or her. "I do not lose another any of my friends again."

At hearing this Kirche blinked, hearing Roxas actually let lose part of his past.

"You lost someone?" Kirche asked, getting Roxas to pause before nodding.

"More then once, not sure if they are alright or not." Roxas said, thinking of Axel and who he was struggling to remember as of late. Their was still a chance that Axel was alive,and he was hoping that whoever his second friend was alive as well.

The saddening vibrations of Oblivion from his bag only increased his concerns.

"I see." Kirche said, before she gained a seductive smile. "Then maybe the both of us can make our pain go away."

Roxas was confused on what she meant by that, until she grabbed his free arm and placing his free hand onto her chest.

Directly over her heart.

"K-Kirche." Roxas said, feeling the strange sensation wash over his body in full force from her actions.

"Do you feel that Roxas, the warmth of my heart. Lit aflame with a burning passion to rival my runic name, the Ardent." Kirche said with a seductive passion. "It burns this way because of you. It burns this way because of my love for you. Ever since you defeated Guiche I have fallen in love with you Roxas, and seeing you heal that innocent girl only solidified my feelings for you."

There it was again, love. A confusing emotion he will never get to experience. One whose thoughts plagued him all afternoon.

Now maybe he wasn't sure if what Kirche was saying was true or not. But maybe she may know something about the love that he was inquiring about it.

"Kirche." Roxas said, getting her full attention.

"Yes Roxas." Kirche said, believing that after five days of trying she finally had Roxas right where she wanted him.

"What is love?" Roxas asked.

Only to shatter those hopes with a single question.

"Pardon?" Kirche said, hoping she simply misheard the Nobody.

"What is love?" Roxas repeated, getting Kirche to separate herself from him.

She was expecting him to say a lot of things, but not this.

How in the Founder's name did he not know what love is? He looked to be about 15 years old and yet he knew nothing about love.

It was a basic emotion, and yet if that was truly how did he grow up this long without knowing so.

"You truly do not know what love is?" Kirche asked incredulously, getting Roxas to nod. "How?!"

"Never had a chance to learn or truly understand it, I guess." He said, getting Kirche to stare at him in surprise.

"You never had a chance to learn about love? What about your parents or your family, weren't they supposed to teach you about love." She asked incredulously once again.

"Never had any family. Even then the people around me were for as you could say emotionally stunted. I pretty much had to figure everything out. So do you know what love is?" Roxas said honestly, stunning Kirche into silence.

This is not what she had planned at all.

She had planned on luring Roxas into her room, finally seduce him, and if there wasn't any interruptions then could have a steamy, passionate night together. The perfect reward for her first challenge since entering the academy. However Kirche could never expect this, any of this. It had all turned into something incredible different. She was staring at someone who was an orphan, had possibly lost everything close to him before be summoned, basically had to learn how to admit that by himself, and never knew what love actually was.

Just what kind of life did Roxas live before Louise summoned him?

The sheer concept of such a life was lost on with such passion as herself. All she did know was that it sounded like a very hollow existence.

For several minutes Roxas waited for Kirche to respond as Flame rubbed his head against his mistress's leg in order to make sure she was alright.

She wasn't answering his question at all, so maybe she truly didn't know at all?

The Nobody sighed as he shook his head and reached for the doorknob.

"Thank you for the talk." Roxas said politely, not really sure how to respond in this kind of situation as he opened the door and left.

At this Kirche snapped out of her stupor and opened the door to call Roxas back in.

Only he was long gone by then.

* * *

Roxas closed the Corridor of Darkness as he stepped onto the top of the academy's tallest tower.

It had been a long day, with the issues of corrupt noble and love. He had enough for one day and decided to focus on those topics another time. And decided to get so sleep in order to perhaps have better progress with them tomorrow.

So he simply fell asleep on the tower's roof.

Not before adding one last entry into his journal.

_Day 371: Love?_

* * *

The next day passed the same as it had for most of Roxas's time here at the academy.

Though their was a feel minute differences.

First was that Kirche had left him alone for the day, which was a first.

Second the commoner staff seemed to be a bit more distant then usual. Sure they seemed to be just as friendly as usual. But they seemed to be a keeping something to their selves from the Nobody.

Finally there was Siesta...she seemed to have something weighing on her heart. Literally, her light felt dimmer in a sense and whenever he tried to ask her about it she always shyed away from the topic.

This concerned Roxas as he hadn't really seen her act this way since Guiche, but considering he hadn't seen her yesterday and she seemed alright maybe she just had a bad day yesterday.

If not then he hoped that his friend would at be willing to talk to him about it if something was truly troubling her.

Right now he was just watching the sunset, this one a quite clouded then he had seen in a long time. Looking like the clouds where trying to swallow up all the light. It looked like he was under a great grey sea with the sun shining dimly through the clouds.

Truly a unique, if gloomy sunset.

Roxas was enjoying the sunset to it's conclusion when he had heard the familiar wing flaps of Slyphid as the dragon landed on the roof.

With Tabitha climbing off of her dragon giving the Nobody with a calculative gaze. Without a book in hand, something that surprised Roxas.

She was never without a book in hand, so this was a first for him.

"You're here for some more answers are you?" Roxas asked, getting Tabitha to nod. "I honestly should have expected that you would do so after last night with Kirche."

"Only one question." Tabitha said, her tone seeming to have a twinge of emotion to it. "How strong is your healing spell?"

The Nobody was once again caught off guard by this, never hearing Tabitha saying more then three words at a single time. And never with such emotion in her voice either.

"It depends on how much magic I use, but it had brought my body back from the brink multiple times." Roxas said honestly, seeing nothing wrong with telling her this.

Yet it seemed to be the wrong thing to say as Tabitha bit her lip slightly.

"The body, I see..." Tabitha trailed off before she shook her head and brought out a book. She immediately brought it close to her face and Slyphid tried to get her attention, but to no avail.

Roxas tried to figure out how his answer would cause such a reaction beyond not being the one she wasn't looking for.

But seeing that Slyphid was not even getting her attention decided to focus on the sunset before heading in for dinner or if Tabitha decided to get his attention.

Something Tabitha was also thinking off, while also wondering how someone who admitted have learned how emote on his own was so well adjusted.

After seeing him sending a few concerned glances her way and thinking about what he did yesterday and in the week prior the answer was clear.

Roxas unlike a certain person she knew and despised who could not feel any emotions, he hard a hard time grasping emotions that were new to him.

* * *

After dinner Roxas helped of the academy's servants taking care of the dishes and Marteau had him work with Siesta the entire time.

It was always a good time to spend with them and to chat with his friend, yet he could still feel the dimness of her heart and it only seemed to have gotten a bit worse as the day progressed.

At the end of cleaning everything to the surprise of Roxas and Siesta, Marteau asked for the Nobody to walk with Siesta back to her room early as she had been busy all day.

Roxas could tell there was something else going on, by how everyone's hearts in the kitchen seemed to darken.

Yet Siesta seemed to be happy about it and immediately lead Roxas with her out of the kitchens, grabbing him by the arm while she did so.

For what reason he didn't know, but all he could care about was being with his friend at the moment.

All along the way the two talked about their day like what has become their normal, all with Siesta leading the way and happily pulling him along.

Not that Roxas minded, and was just happy talking with his friend.

Though he was surprised at how strong her grip was.

In a few minutes they had reached her room and Siesta let go of his arm as she stopped in front of the door and turned to Roxas while her lower lipped twitch slightly.

He was about to ask her what was wrong, but she bowed before catching Roxas by surprise and embracing him in a hug.

"Thank you for everything Roxas." Siesta said, getting the Nobody to blink.

"For what?" Roxas asked as Siesta separated herself from him with a bright smile.

"As I was saying Roxas, for everything that you have done for me. Saving me from...that horrific experience with Guiche." Siesta said, breaking her smile for a moment with a shutter. "Meeting with me everyday, talking with me even if I tend to rattle off sometimes, helping me with my tasks from time to time, and just for being my friend. These past few days have been some of my favorite moments since coming under the employment of the academy. I will always treasure them, and they will give me the strength to continue moving forward."

Roxas could tell something was off. The way of her smile, her eyes gaining a slight shimmer too them, and the feel of her heart dimming of ever so slightly.

Something about all of this just felt off to him.

"Siesta is everything alright? If have something wrong you can tell me as your friend right. We have each other's back just like our first day together." Roxas said, getting Siesta to pause.

She was silent for a whole minute before a small smile broke across her face and her eyes seem to glimmer even more.

"I know, but everything is alright." Siesta said as she opened the door to her room. "You have such a kind heart Roxas, don't you ever forget that. Goodbye."

With that she quickly closed the door behind her. Roxas frowned at that and reached for the door, but stopped himself.

Something just felt wrong with this whole situation.

Siesta was his friend, and if something was wrong she would tell him right?

But this was probably like with Tabitha, she will not talk unless she wants too. So he will try again in the morning.

Roxas opened a Corridor of Darkness and hoped that he was wrong about his feeling.

As it closed Siesta's door opened and she took a quick look to make sure Roxas was gone before letting lose the tears she had been holding back before closing the door.

Knowing that tomorrow would bring nothing but sadness if the rumors were true.

* * *

The next morning Roxas rushed into the kitchen sometime after breakfast.

He was hoping to have caught Siesta earlier, but he couldn't sense her anywhere else.

So he asked a few of the academy's servants, all telling him Marteau was waiting for him in the kitchen. Something that after last night only worsened his suspicions that something was wrong.

Which was proven right for when he entered the academy's kitchen to find Marteau all alone in there, cleaning the dishes.

The moment Roxas stepped towards him, Marteau put down the dish in his hands with a sigh and turned towards the Nobody.

"Marteau where is everyone?" Roxas asked as he walked towards the head chef.

"They are on a 10 minute break right now, they all should be back soon. I wasn't sure if you wished to hearing the news with others around Roxas. Unless she told you last night?" Marteau said seriously,getting Roxas to stop in his tracks.

"Where is Siesta?" Roxas asked, worry starting to fill his tone.

"So she didn't, I should have known. Siesta is gone Roxas, she is no longer employed at the academy anymore as of this morning." Marteau said with a sigh, getting Roxas's blood to run cold.

Siesta was gone... his first friend here had left not that long ago...

Hearing that left him for the lack of a better term hollow...

And if her behavior yesterday was of any indication, then wherever she was now employed it could not be any good...

"So she is gone then." Roxas said, his tone hollow as Marteau nodded somberly.

"Not by choice, two days ago a noble saw Siesta...and took an interest in her if you know what I mean. She was allowed to finish up any business she had at the academy before being taken away. " Marteau said solemnly. " The noble in question has a direct connection with the royal palace, as much as I hate to admit it we can't do a thing about it. Even if she was hired to be a mistress, and considering the rumors around that man I hope that she hasn't.'

At hearing that Roxas tensed up and felt dread rise up inside of him.

No...it couldn't be..

"Please tell me that the noble wasn't Count Mott?!' Roxas asked Marteau, praying to Kingdom Hearts that he was wrong!

However Marteau only nodded at that solemnly, confirming Roxas's fears.

"Then you have heard about the man, I don't know if the rumors are true or not. But I can only pray to the Founder that she will be alright." Marteau said as he turned around and went back to doing the dishes. "For against a noble of his standing and a triangle mage at that, it is near impossible for a commoner to stand up to that."

After saying that the head chef blinked as he noticed the light in the room flickering a bit before they settled as Roxas ran out of the room.

There were few times in his life the Nobody could remember being as angry as he was right now.

The last time being when he first encountered DiZ in that accursed digital prison.

But it compared in comparison to the feelings radiating from Oblivion and the glyph on his hand. It could only be described a pure murderous intent.

Roxas had no idea what could cause such a reaction from from the presences, but he did know one thing.

That this reaction, how callous Count Mott was to murder a little girl in broad daylight over something simple, and the fact he took Siesta into a possible fate worst than death had it all the more clear on what to do.

Bring the full blunt of his wrath onto the dark noble and rescue Siesta before it is too late.

And unlike with Guiche, there will be no mercy this time.

But first he needed to find where he lived first either wise he would never find them.

So he opened up his senses and ran towards where Kirche's room was either to find her or Tabitha there or along the way to ask if they know.

Either one of them were possibly his only chance to locate Count Mott.

Louise would probably not care that Siesta was put Count Mott's employment.

The teachers were a mixed bag and while he had come to trust Osmond and Colbert they would most likely dissuade him from coming after him.

Plus the Nobody didn't really know anyone else of the students well enough that they would be willing to help him.

So they were his only options in order to find-

Roxas was broken from his thoughts as he ran straight into someone and the both them were sent sprawling onto the ground.

Looking up he saw that it was Guiche who he had run into, with the mage looking at the Nobody with a mixture of fear and respect while holding on of his arms to his ribs.

Ever since their dual nearly a week ago he had thought about his actions and with some help with Colbert inorder to never make a similar mistake like with Siesta ever again.

The weeks of detention, the letters of his mother and farther concerning their disappointment for what he did, and them cutting him off from his allowance for two months just hammered it in.

Though his father did send him a letter in secret saying that he was proud for at least making an Iron Rose with half a month's allowance, knowing that his mother would never condone such a thing.

Besides that he has been trying to win back Montmorency back, which was a bit difficult considering he had no idea where he lost her perfume she gifted him and stopping her attempts at getting back at Roxas for him.

He appreciated bit, but it was not a good idea to stand up to Louise's familiar as his still healing rib could attest to.

"I recommend that next time you do not rush through these halls like that Roxas." Guiche groaned as he got up and he clutched his side.

'I will keep that in mind." Roxas said as he stood back up before blinking.

Guiche hadn't done anything and Siesta had forgiven him after he apologized. Are in that he was a noble it wouldn't hurt to ask if he knew where Count Mott was.

But first, he supposed he held onto something.

"Here, I believe you dropped this the other day." Roxas said, grabbing the bottle out of his bag. Which Guiche immediately snatched out of his hand with a swish of his cape.

"Thank you Roxas, you have no idea how much trouble I had looking for this." Guiche said excitedly, knowing this would help him on his track to get back with Montmorency.

"Your right I don't, but I do know how you are going to thank me. Tell me, do you know who Count Mott is?" Roxas asked, getting Guiche to stop and stare at him. A twinge of anger in his eyes.

"Yes I do, he and my father have hated each other's guts for decades now. I also know there are several unscrupulous rumors created by commoners floating around him lately. Why would you like to know about him?" Guiche asked, irritation bleeding through his tone at the memories at how often the Count had caused trouble for his father.

That irritation and anger soon turned to pure fear as Roxas adapted a cold look on his face, the exact same on he had adopted halfway through his dual.

The same one that had haunted his nightmares for around the past week.

"He took Siesta to be a mistress and considering what I have seen him do I fear what he will do to her. And you should know better then anyone here what happens if you mess with my friends." Roxas said coldly, getting Guiche to nod profusely as he tried to compose himself.

Hearing of the situation and the frigid tone of Roxas there was more going onto then he would probably like to know.

Still when Roxas's gaze softened he let out a massive sigh of relief.

"Believe me I am well aware, if what you are saying is true then I will gladly point you in the right direction. Though I have to warn you are you sure about this? Unlike myself Count Mott is a triangle mage and the royal messenger to the palace. Their will be serious ramifications of you going after him." Guiche said seriously, getting Roxas to nod with equal seriousness.

"I know and quite frankly I could care less. Count Mott had been using his position to escape any consiqunces, until now. He took Siesta and I will do whatever I can to protect my friend and make sure he pays. Now where does he live?" Roxas said coldly, hopping that Siesta will be alright until he gets there.

* * *

**The projector dies down as the chapter ends and you see author stretching in his seat.**

***Hey guys Hakuorofan7 here and I hoped that you all enjoyed this chapter. Cause I spent about the entire month writing and editing it before I believe I got it right.***

***It took a while to perfect it, but as you all can see I believe it turned out alright... and to tell you the truth I cried a little while writing Roxas's and Siesta's exchange. The second time while I was ever writing one of my stories. Not expecting anyone else to have the same reaction bit I figured I would share that little tidbit.***

***And as you can see this chapter had a quite a bit going for it, especially that bit with Derflinger. Don't worry you'll get to see him eventually, but let's just say his reaction has to do with something important to come soon enough.***

***Now then the next chapter Roxas goes up against Count Mott to rescue and it will be a long chapter. And don't worry, the corrupt Count will get everything he deserves next chapter.***

***I hope you all will enjoy it when it comes out.***

***And to those going on about Louise, she starts to change after next chapter after seeing the true horror of Count Mott... which is pretty dark and leaving it at that.***

***Anyway that is all for now.***

***If you have a question just leave a review or PM and I will get back when I can. So until next time ciao!***

**The author snaps his fingers as the screen fades to black. **


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